Opposition refuses to attend the ruling party presentation on changes to election system
The Georgian Dream ruling party is scheduled to present constitutional amendments later today. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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The European Georgia and the United National Movement opposition parties have refused to attend the presentation at 2 p.m., when the Georgian Dream ruling party will propose the changes in the constitution for Georgia to have fully proportional voting in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the electoral system have demanded by the opposition for years.
Both parties says that the reason for the refusal is ongoing rallies in Tbilisi and the denial of the ruling party to fulfill the final demand of demonstrators - to dismiss Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia for the rally dispersal on June 20.
Our attending the presentation might create an illusion that everything is settled. Gakharia must be dismissed,” a member of the United National Movement Roman Gotsiridze said.
However, both parties say that they will participate in all the discussions and activities which will be dedicated to the change.
Vice Parliament Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili said that political parties will gather in parliament on July 8 to discuss the changes offered by the ruling party today.
The opposition say, however, that they will participate in the discussions around the changes. Photo: Parliament's press office.
She said that public discussions will take place around the changes before they are discussed in parliament in the autumn.
We will need the opposition support to adopt the changes [as the Georgian Dream no longer has the constitutional majority in parliament, at least 113 MPs in the 150-member parliament].”
The ruling party accepted one of the top demands of demonstrators in Tbilisi last week and said that the upcoming elections in Georgia would be conducted with a proportional vote and with a zero threshold.
The CoE, PACE, EU welcomed the initiative, saying that the implementation of the change needs the involvement of all parliamentary actors to ensure that the constitutional amendments are adopted by the relevant majority.
- As of now Georgia has a mixed electoral system with 77 seats in its 150-member parliament allocated proportionally under the party-list among parties or electoral blocs which clear a 5 per cent threshold in the race.
- The remaining 73 MPs are elected in 73 single-member districts, known as “majoritarian” mandates. A majoritarian MP candidate has to gain more than 50 per cent of votes to take a seat in the legislative body.
- The new constitution of Georgia, which was adopted in 2017, and which came into play after last year’s presidential elections, reads that Georgia moved to fully proportional elections from 2024, which have been hailed as “unfair” by the opposition.
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia, Titus Corlatean and Claude Kern, and head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Georgia Christian Urse have welcomed the offer of the ruling Georgian Dream party to introduce a fully proportional election system with a zero per cent threshold by 2020.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell has made his first comments regarding June 20 events and following rallies in Tbilisi, praising the offer of the Georgian Dream ruling party on elections and urged the investigation of rally dispersal in central Tbilisi last week.
Thirteen people remain hospitalized out of the 240 who were injured during June 20 Tbilisi protests. Head of Emergency Management Center of Georgia Avtandil Talakvadze said two of the injured are in intensive care department.
Morning of June 20 protests outside Georgian parliament
Political opposition and part of the public erupted in protest in Tbilisi on Thursday after a Russian State Duma MP took a seat of the chairman of the Parliament of Georgia for an address to the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy in the capital.
A total of 35 students from eleven different universities of Georgia have addressed the ruling Georgian Dream party Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili to support the establishment of a state advisory council of youth aimed at strengthening communication between the government and youth.
15 opposition parties have addressed new Parliamentary Speaker Archil Talakvadze and demanded that the parliamentary group working on election reform be expanded. The opposition says that the list of the parties involved in the working group should be revised and the reform group should be of a more inclusive nature.
The Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Archil Talakvadze explained in details the ruling Georgian Dream party’s bill on holding the parliamentary elections in 2020 with a fully proportional voting system, with zero entry threshold. Talakvadze said with its bill the ruling party aims to make politics more democratic, balanced and calm; reduce polarisation; and leave more space for cooperation and business-like discussions
The ruling Georgian Dream party says that the draft resolution of the European Georgia opposition party, which urges for additional international sanctions against Russia, is destructive and will lead to imposing economic sanctions on Georgia.
The Georgian parliamentary minority has vowed to support the Georgian Dream ruling party bill on moving to fully proportional elections from 2020 as they fear that the ruling party may reject its own bill and retain the mixed-electoral system for next year's parliamentary elections. The decision of the United National Movement and the European Georgia opposition parties to support the ruling party bill “anyway” comes after the statement of several MPs of the Georgian Dream.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition has accused current secretary of the National Security Council Levan Izoria and Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri of ‘concealing a crime’ which involved Izoria’s brother back in 2014, stating that current Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia ‘was also aware of the offence.’