Opposition demands election reform group to be expanded

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.

Currently, the working group includes the following parties: European Georgia- Movement for Freedom, United National Movement, Labour Party, Democratic Movement – Unified Georgia and Free Georgia.

The ruling party held the new election system presentation yesterday.  Photo: Georgian Dream press office.

The opposition asks Archil Talakvadze to grant their request by the next meeting of the working group (8-10 July).

Yesterday, the ruling party held a presentation on the format of the upcoming proportional vote and stated all legislators of the Georgian Dream ruling party will support the proportional voting system in 2020. 

The opposition refused to attend the presentation but vowed to participate in all activities dedicated to the issue.

• Ruling party unanimous on proportional voting, opposition needed to approve changes

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.

Protests led the ruling party to schedule proportional elections in 2020. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Georgia was to move to fully proportional elections starting 2024 according to the new constitution adopted in 2017. 

On June 24, the Georgian Dream ruling party announced that the 2020 parliamentary elections will be conducted on the proportional electoral system and met one of the top demands of demonstrators holding protests in Tbilisi since June 20.