Oldest Georgian political party denied registration for upcoming elections

The Republican Party, which is the oldest political party in Georgia founded back in 1978, has been denied registration for the October parliamentary elections by the Central Election Commission (CEC). 

The reason for the refusal is late submission of mandatory documentation to the CEC. 

• 68 non-parliamentary parties request registration for upcoming elections

The CEC says that non-parliamentary parties must have presented the documentation before July 15, while the party presented them on July 15. 

Party member Tamar Kordzaia says that they submitted documentation to the Georgian Post on July 14, while the post brought the documents to the CEC on July 15.

She says as the party gave the documentation to the post office before the deadline, the party should have been registered. 

The Republican Party has appealed the decision to the court. 

Kordzaia says that if the court leaves the CEC’s decision unchanged, they are likely to partner with other parties in the elections. 

The elections in the autumn will be held in a different manner, with 120 MPs elected per the party-list based electoral system and the remaining 30 per the majoritarian electoral model. 

The parties which receive at least one per cent of total votes will be able to enter the  parliament. 

In the previous parliamentary elections in 2016 the Republican party received 1.55 per cent of votes and failed to overcome the mandatory, 3 per cent threshold. 

Several key figures, including former Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili, left the party following the elections. 

The Republican Party belonged to the Georgian Dream coalition in the 2012 parliamentary elections and entered the legislative body. 

However, the party decided to run separately in the 2016 elections.