Opposition announces plan B for 2020 elections
Member of the European Georgia opposition party Sergi Kapanadze says that the opposition will continue rallies in Tbilisi tomorrow.Photo: parliament of Georgia press office.
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Opposition parties who have been demanding the 2020 parliamentary elections be held on a proportional or similar election system say they have a plan B if the upcoming elections are held per the mixed electoral system.
Leader of the European Georgia opposition party Sergi Kapanadze says that that the plan B means nominating joint opposition candidates for the majoritarian race.
If we have to do so, the ruling party will lose the elections even more sharply,” the Georgian Public Broadcaster cited Kapanadze as saying.
Kapanadze says that the opposition will continue demonstrations to make the ruling party ‘keep its promise,’ and allow the conduct of the 2020 elections per a proportional electoral system.
He said that demonstrators will gather at the Georgian parliament tomorrow.
However, we are ready for dialogue with the ruling party on the election issue and are waiting for our international partners to give us the date of the following meeting,” Kapanadze said.
Protests were sparked in Tbilisi in November 2019 after parliament rejected the ruling party proposed election bill on an early transition to a fully proportional electoral system starting from 2020 instead of speculated 2024.
The early transition was the promise given by the ruling party to the demonstrators in Tbilisi in June 2019, during the rallies which were triggered by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament.
The opposition says that they will gather at parliament tomorrow. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
The opposition accuses the ruling party of deliberately rejecting the bill and is demanding the 2020 elections to be held per the “adapted German model,” which distributes seats in parliament based on votes received in proportional voting.
Ruling party officials have dismissed the accusations, stating that they were unable to convince the party’s majoritarian MPs to vote for the bill.
In December 2019 the ruling party offered a 100/50 model to the opposition for 2020 elections, which distributes 100 seats proportionally and 50 seats based on majoritarian race in the 150-member parliament.
The opposition says that the model is ‘unacceptable.’
- The ruling party and the opposition have already held four meetings mediated by diplomatic corps to reach a consensus for the upcoming elections.
- The date of the fifth meeting has not yet been announced.
- Currently Georgia has a mixed electoral system, with 73 MPs elected in single-mandate constituencies [majoritarian elections] and remaining 77 based on proportional, party-list system.
- The ruling party says that if no agreement is reached with the opposition on 2020 elections, the elections will be held per the current, mixed system, while the country will move to a fully-proportional electoral model starting from 2024, as the current Constitution reads.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has made a new offer to the opposition ahead of today’s meeting, stating that they are ready for 100 spots in parliament to be elected via the proportional electoral system and the remaining 50 per the majoritarian system in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
The third meeting between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition over the electoral changes has yielded no results. The opponents met in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi earlier today to discuss the possibility of moving to a multi-mandate system starting in 2020.
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.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has announced that they are ready to conduct the 2020 parliamentary elections on the proportional electoral system only, which has been one of the top demands of demonstrators gathered in Tbilisi since June 20.
Opposition parties have postponed today’s demonstrations on election issues as six individuals, four minors, their mother and a relative, died in a fire in Bagdati municipality of western Georgia late yesterday.“It is a huge tragedy. We need to think about it and mourn,” leader of the European Georgia opposition party Gigi Ugulava stated earlier today, urging the ruling Georgian Dream party to also postpone the opening of the spring session in parliament today.
The opposition and civic activists have resumed protests at Georgian parliament earlier today, creating a ‘corridor of shame’ for ruling party MPs and demanding an early transition to a proportional electoral system in time for the parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year.
The OSCE/ODIHR has released its conclusion on the Georgian opposition’s election bill which proposes a proportional electoral system for the 2020 parliamentary elections, saying that it is in the competence of the national courts, and not theirs, to decide whether a bill is in line with the state constitution or not.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, who sent the opposition’s election bill to the OSCE/ODIHR, says that she had no expectations that the OSCE/ODIHR would directly say whether the bill was in line with the Georgian constitution or not.
The opposition will make a new offer to the ruling Georgian Dream party on the election model for the 2020 parliamentary elections, European Georgian opposition party MP Otar Kakhidze stated earlier today.
The chance of Georgia being granted an European Union candidate status is an “opportunity not to be missed,” a part of the Parliamentary opposition said on Friday in a letter to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.