8th MP leaves ruling party after today’s rejection of election bill
MP Mariam Jashi said that the Georgian Dream ruling party should have kept its promise on moving to a fully proportional electoral system. Photo: parliament of Georgia press office.
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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.
She says that it was a “principal decision” as the ruling party “was unable to keep the promise given to people two months ago,” on the move to a fully proportional election system starting 2020.
I will always be proud of the initiatives and historic decisions which have been made under the Georgian Dream leadership. However, it was a principal issue and I was unable not to make the decision,” Jashi said.
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 earlier today after 40 MPs of the ruling party either voted against or abstained from voting the election bill drafted by 93 GD MPs in the summer.
The bill which offered to hold the 2020 parliamentary elections on a fully proportional voting system and with a zero per cent electoral threshold was voted for by 101 MPs instead of mandatory 113 earlier today.
Demonstrators and the opposition have blocked Rustaveli Avenue since the rejection of the bill.
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.
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.
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.
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.