Ruling party leader Ivanishvili says he’s “disappointed” bill was scrapped, accuses opposition
The founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili says that he has failed to convince majoritarian MPs to vote for the bill. Photo: Georgian Dream press office.
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The founder and head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Bidzina Ivanishvili says that he has been supportive of a transition to a fully proportional election system from 2020 and is “very sorry” the GD-proposed bill was rejected earlier today.
Ivanishvili has accused the United National Movement (UNM) and the European Georgia parliamentary opposition parties of “staging provocations which have led to the scrapping of the bill.”
I am disappointed that our proposal to transition to a fully proportional election system from 2020 has not been approved,” Ivanishvili stated.
He said that it was the GD which initially proposed and adopted constitutional changes back in 2017, allowing the move to fully proportional elections from 2024 [at that time GD had 116 MPs, while the adoption of constitutional changes require at least 113 votes in the 150-member parliament].
Ivanishvili stated the majoritarian MPs of the ruling party were against the fully proportional elections even in 2017 that is why “through a consensus” they accepted the change starting from 2024.
He says that the opposition “was strongly opposing the election changes and boycotted the process” in 2017.
If the opposition supported the election bill in 2017, there will be no discussions regarding the issue now and the decision on the move to the fully proportional elections from 2020 would have been made several years ago,” Ivanishvili said.
Opposition leaders have taken to streets. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
He stated that the ruling party has responded to “fair public protests” in the summer “very adequately,” and proposed the holding of 2020 parliamentary elections on a fully proportional system and a zero per cent election threshold.
I was the initiator of the idea, and the ruling party, despite the hesitation of majoritarian MPs, accepted the idea,” Ivanishvili said.
He reiterated that GD majoritarian MPs “have never been happy with the fully proportional system, but we have achieved a consensus inside the party.”
Ivanishvili stated that “continued provocations of the opposition and the abuse of the ruling party MPs” just before the voting of the bill discouraged the GD majoritarian MPs to vote for it and the bill was scrapped.
Demonstrators who participated in the June rallies and the opposition have blocked Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi and announced the “largest rallies ever” after a ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed election bill was scraped earlier today as many GD MPs refused to vote for it.
Passing the bill, which allowed the conduct of 2020 parliamentary elections with a fully proportional election system and a zero election threshold, needed at least 113 votes in the 150-member parliament.
Three MPs of the ruling party voted against and 37 others abstained from voting the bill which was drafted by 93 GD MPs in the summer.
Demonstrators who participated in the June rallies and the opposition have blocked Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi and announced the “largest rallies ever” after a ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed election bill was scrapped earlier today as many GD MPs refused to vote for it. Members of European Georgia and the United National Movement opposition parties are rallying with them.
The leader of the European Georgia parliamentary opposition party David Bakradze says that the country is facing a “severe political crisis,” and the “creator of the crisis, the Georgian Dream ruling party will pay for it.”
Vice Parliament Speaker of Georgia Tamar Chugoshvili, MPs Irina Pruidze, Giorgi Mosidze, Dimitri Tskitishvili, Tamar Khulordava, Sophio Katsarava and Zaza Khutsishvili have left the Georgian Dream ruling party after the party proposed election bill was scrapped earlier today. The bill which offered the conduct of 2020 parliamentary elections with a fully proportional voting system and a zero threshold has been voted for by 101 MPs instead of mandatory 113 earlier today.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed bill on holding of 2020 parliamentary elections with a fully proportional voting system and a zero threshold has been scrapped as 101 MPs instead of mandatory 113 voted for it. 141 of total 150 MPs have been registered for the vote earlier today. However, 37 abstained from voting and three voted against.
Mariam Jashi, head of the Parliament’s Education, Culture and Science Committee, is the eighth MP to leave the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party after today’s rejection of the GD-proposed election bill.
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Georgia have expressed their “deep regret” that the Georgian Dream ruling party proposed bill, which aimed to introduce a fully proportional election system starting in 2020, was rejected earlier today.
Giorgi Begadze is the ninth MP to leave the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party after the recent rejection of the GD-proposed election bill. Begadze is the majoritarian MP of the ruling party in Rustavi, a town close to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
Georgian opposition parties and young civic activists who participated in June’s anti-occupation rallies have set out their main demands after the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed election bill was scrapped on Thursday.
US Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the initiators of the US Support Act to Georgia, has stated that that the failure [of the Georgian parliament] to deliver constitutional amendment [on Thursday] will be a gift for Russian President Vladimir Putin.“The failure will destroy the progress Georgia has made to reach complete independence and separation from an aggressive, encroaching neighbor in Russia,” Kinzinger wrote.