Elections: Financial compensation for parties overcoming 3% threshold

Political parties that overcome the three percent threshold in the self-government elections will receive financial compensation of half a million GEL.  

One of the Georgian Dream leaders Zviad Dzidziguri revealed information about this initiative last night after the coalition’s political council meeting.

"This is one of our initiatives. Also, we work on some other schemes on how to improve representation of relatively small parties,” Dzidziguri added. 

Opposition parties have criticized the initiative offered by the majority today. One of the Christian Democratic Movement leaders Levan Vepkhvadze said spending money to reimburse parties at the elections was not ideal.

"The situation is strange to some extent. It turns out the Government says to us they will reimburse our spending only if we do not say anything about the elections system,” Vepkhvadze stated. 

"We assume that the results of the elections should reflect the population’s attitudes, and the existing elections system, when parties overcome the 30% and 40% threshold could take 90% of seats, has to be changed. Otherwise, it turns out that we have to spend money and it will be reimbursed from the budget despite not be represented in the council in accordance with the population attitudes,” Vepkhvadze explained. 

Christian Democrats Movement and New Rights party were granted financial compensation of one million GEL after the previous self-government elections in 2011. 

However, Vepkhvadze said the difference between what happened in the past and now was earlier, the parties agreed on a system – 100 seats elected proportionally and another 75 elected by majority rule. Vepkhvadze said that system was much better. 

"Now they offer half a million and do not change the system at all,” he said. 

Opposition parties plan to meet with Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili tomorrow to discuss issues about the upcoming elections, including the reimbursement initiative. 

From tomorrow’s meeting, the opposition was expecting answers on problematic issues surrounding the electoral system, electoral threshold, access to the broadcasting time, as well as issues connected with representatives in electoral administration and commissions, and verification of the electorate at the election polls.