Central Election Commission releases final document summarising Georgia’s Parliamentary Elections

Today Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) released its final protocol summarising the outcomes of last month's Parliamentary Elections in Georgia.

Releasing the document means the newly-elected Parliament of Georgia must hold its first session no later than November 19. 

The CEC's final election summarising protocol reported: 

• 3,513,884 people were registered and eligible to vote.
• 1,825,054 people cast their ballots for proportional voting to elect 76 lawmakers in the 150-member legislative body. 
• Three parties gained at least 5 percent of votes - the mandatory threshold to gain seats in Parliament. 
• The three parties were: Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia, United National Movement and Alliance of Patriots.
• Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia gained 115 seats in the legislative body (received 856,638 votes), United National Movement gained 27 seats (received 477,053 votes), Alliance of Patriots won 6 seats (88,097 votes).
• Two remaining seats were won by a candidate from the Industrial Party and by an independent majoritarian candidate. 
• Georgia has a mixed electoral system where 76 lawmakers are elected through the proportional, party list voting and the remaining 73 are elected through majoritarian elections where a candidate must receive more than 50 percent of votes. 

President Giorgi Margvelashvili urged lawmakers to refrain from naming the date for Parliament's first session. Photo by the President of Georgia's press office.

Before releasing the final protocol, Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili urged future lawmakers to refrain from naming the exact date of the new Parliament’s first session, as the date should be decided and announced by the President.

The President's comment was made in response to comments by future lawmakers yesterday, who said the first session of the new Parliament of Georgia would take place on November 18. 

Georgian legislation stated once the CEC had released its final election protocol, the President of Georgia must name the date for  Parliament’s first session.