US, EU ambassadors welcome dialogue between ruling party, opposition
The first meeting between the ruling party and opposition amid the ongoing protest rallies in Georgia was held yesterday. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Acting Ambassador of the United States to Georgia Elizabeth Rood and Ambassador of European Union Carl Hartzell welcome the beginning of a dialogue between the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and opposition over the recent electoral dispute.
Ambassador Hartzell welcomed "constructive discussions, demonstrating potential for decreased political polarisation".
Just finished first dialogue meeting between the ruling party and opposition representatives.
— Carl Hartzell (@CarlHartzellEU) November 30, 2019
I welcome the constructive discussions, demonstrating potential for decreased political polarisation. pic.twitter.com/0IyZtCeDkg
Elizabeth Rood also noted that the US and the EU "expressed a strong hope and called for a dialogue" after the failure of the constitutional amendments aimed to move to a fully proportional electoral system starting 2020 instead of 2024.
We are very pleased that the dialogue is beginning here today. As I view it, the purpose of this dialogue is to search for options, rather than to exclude options. - CDA Elizabeth Rood's Comment to Media at Biltmore Hotel. https://t.co/JhhpE7JY6S
— U.S. Embassy Tbilisi (@usingeo) November 30, 2019
The ruling party met with the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition for the first time yesterday after the parliament’s rejection of a bill which offered an early transition to a fully proportional electoral system.
The meeting was facilitated by foreign ambassadors accredited in Georgia. The Secretary of the Venice Commission Thomas Markert also attended the meeting to provide “advice and expertise to the process”.
Ambassador Rood said ahead of the meeting that the purpose of this dialogue was to search for options, rather than to exclude them.
She hoped that all of the representatives would demonstrate that “Georgians can rely on their democratic institutions, and their shared commitment to integration with the Euro-Atlantic community, to find the best way forward in the interests of the Georgian nation”.
Today's meeting between the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and opposition over the current electoral dispute, facilitated by foreign ambassadors accredited in Georgia, has ended without results. This was the first meeting between the opponents following the parliament’s rejection of an electoral bill which offered an early transition to a fully proportional electoral system.
NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai said it is important that there be dialogue "to move beyond the current impasse”. Appathurai said he felt “encouraged” by reports of an upcoming meeting between the government and the opposition over the issue.
About 30 opposition parties, including the parliamentary opposition, have presented an ‘adapted version’ of the German electoral model for Georgia’s 2020 parliamentary elections amid protests in Tbilisi sparked by the rejection of the ruling party proposed bill which offered an early transition to a fully proportional electoral system starting 2020 instead of 2024.
Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze has urged opposition MPs, who are now protesting the rejection of an election reform bill on the streets, to return to the legislative body and voice their demands in parliament.