Several ruling party MPs collecting signatures for bill on fully majoritarian elections
Several of the ruling party’s majoritarian MPs say that a fully proportional electoral system, which is scheduled to be launched in Georgia from 2024, is not for Georgia.Photo: parliament of Georgia press office.
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Eleven majoritarian MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, who rejected the party proposed bill on an early transition to a fully proportional elections on November 14, are set to collect 200,000 signatures from voters to initiate a bill to parliament on the transition to a fully majoritarian elections from 2024.
The move comes amid protests in the country, sparked by the rejection of the GD-proposed bill last month which should have ensured the transition to a fully proportional electoral system starting from 2020 instead of 2024 [as the current Georgian constitution reads].
The majoritarian MPs of the ruling party say that the country should have a two-chambered parliament: a lower chamber named the Council of the Republic and the upper chamber – the Senate, with all the 150 MPs elected in single-mandate constituencies.
Ruling patty majoritarian MP Dimitri Khundadze voiced the initiative about the new bill in mid-November. Photo: parliament press office.
They say that the Council of the Republic will be elected for a four-year-term and will be composed of 77 MPs, while the Senate will be elected for a five-year-term and will be composed of 73 MPs.
The citizens of Georgia over 25 will be allowed to be elected to the lower chamber, while senators must be over 40.
Senators will represent one or several municipalities, except Tbilisi.
Leader of the ruling party Mamuka Mdinaradze has stated earlier today that the bill on the transition to a fully majoritarian electoral system will not gain support in parliament.
Currently Georgia has a mixed electoral system, with 73 MPs elected in single-mandate constituencies [majoritarian elections] and remaining 77 based on proportional, party-list system.
After the rejection of election bill last month, the system is likely to be maintained for 2020 elections, while the opposition is demanding the German electoral model for 2020 race, which is also mixed, but distributes seats in the legislative body based on the votes received in the proportional voting.
The EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell says that the Georgian Dream ruling party and the opposition coming to a consensus soon regarding the electoral system for the 2020 parliamentary elections is unrealistic.
The Head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Georgia Christian Urse says that diplomatic corps are now focused on the dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition for the 2020 elections in Georgia as the Georgian constitution allows the transition to a fully proportional electoral system from 2024 and the problems related to election systems will be removed automatically.
About 30 opposition parties, who have offered the transfer to ‘an adapted version of the German electoral model’ for the 2020 parliamentary elections, say they will register the bill in parliament in the coming days and are requesting Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria send the bill to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for evaluations.
A ruling Georgian Dream (GD) majoritarian MP Dimitri Khundadze has offered the country to switch to a fully majoritarian electoral system amid protests in Tbilisi which were sparked by the rejection of the GD-proposed bill on the transition to a fully proportional electoral system from 2020.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says it will not vote for several of 20 candidates running for a seat as a Georgian Supreme Court judge, during the voting scheduled on December 12.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has made an agreement with its majoritarian MPs who are proposing a fully majoritarian electoral system and announced constitutional amendments before the 2020 parliamentary elections. The party says that after the amendments take place, there will be no demands for a transition to fully majoritarian elections by its MPs.
Opposition parties have stated that the new offer of the ruling Georgian Dream party on electing 100 MPs via the proportional and remaining 50 via majoritarian voting ‘not only for the 2020 elections,’ is ‘absolutely unacceptable and is another attempt to trick the people.”