Parliament majority remains after 12 new additions

Twelve independent Members of Parliament (MPs) announced they will join the Parliament majority represented by the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition today.

Six were from the independent fraction, while the other six had previously left the former ruling United National Movement party and did not belong to any political party since then.

The independent majoritarians said they made this decision as the country needed to have a stable majority in order to develop.

After the independent MPs joined the GD fraction, the ruling coalition now had a total of 87 members – enough regain its position as Parliamentary majority after last week’s departure of Free Democrats fraction members.

"[Having a stable majority] will prevent Georgia from unexpected political shakes, which could lead the country into special parliamentary elections,” the independent majoritarians said, adding "so many elections in such a short period of time” would damage the country’s economy and international reputation.

Parliament’s majority can be created by a fraction or a group of fractions who make up more than half of all MPs. Georgia’s Parliament has 150 members, which means a fraction should have at least 76 members to make a majority.

Until last week, the GD coalition was represented by 83 members out of whom 10 were Free Democrats. After seven members of Free Democrats left the coalition, GD only had 75 members – one seat less than needed to hold the majority.