EU ambassador meets ruling party top figures ‘to find solutions’ after rejection of election bill

EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell has met with the head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Bidzina Ivanishvili and Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze to “find solutions” after the rejection of the ruling party proposed election bill in parliament yesterday.

Hartzell stated that the EU expected tension to follow the rejection of the bill. 

Before the voting took place I stated that the rejection of the bill would break trust among political parties, trust with wider segments of the population, and would increase the polarisation in the run-up to the 2020 elections. What we see now, after the rejection of the bill, confirms the threats,” Hartzell said.

He stated that now he is involved in consultations with the ruling party to find a solution to the current situation and the tension, as the opposition and demonstrators have taken to the streets, accusing the government of breaking its promise on the transition to a fully proportional election model starting 2020 instead of 2024.

Hartzell said that he will also meet with the opposition.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze (L) has met with EU Ambassador Hartzell earlier today. Photo: Archil Talakvadze's press office. 

Talakvadze vowed that 2020 parliamentary elections will be conducted “democratically and in the full line with top international standards,” despite the bill was rejected.

We will work the OSCE election recommendations to be maximally taken into account before the race takes place,” Talavkadze said.

The founder and head of the Georgian Dream party Ivanishvili says that he failed to convince several ruling party MPs [three GD MPs voted against the bill and 37 others abstained from voting] to vote for the bill and accused the opposition of staging provocations which discouraged the MPs to vote.

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed bill on holding 2020 parliamentary elections per a fully proportional voting system and a zero per cent entry threshold was scrapped as only 101 MPs voted for it instead of mandatory 113 in the 150-member parliament [where the GD has less than 100 MPs].

Vice Parliament Speaker of Georgia Tamar Chugoshvili, and 11 fellow MPs have left the Georgian Dream ruling party after the rejection of the bill, while demonstrators and the opposition blocked Rustaveli Avenue in protest.

Demonstrators, who are demanding snap proportional elections conducted by an interim government, vow to offer an “outcome” to the government from the situation later today.

The ruling party accepted the conduct of 2020 parliamentary elections on a fully proportional system amid the June public protests in Tbilisi, as it was one of the three demands of demonstrators to stop rallies.