Opposition to make new election offer to ruling party

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. 

He said that the opposition’s offer may be a 130/20 or 135/15 election model, in which most of the seats in the 150-member parliament [130 or 135] will be distributed per the votes received in proportional elections, while the remaining seats will be occupied by majoritarian MPs. 

The offer, if made, will be a response to the 100/50 offer of the ruling party for the 2020 elections. 

 Election-related 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 accuses the ruling party of deliberately rejecting the bill and was demanding the 2020 elections to be held per the “adapted German model’ [the demand still remains in the force] which distributes seats in parliament based on votes received in proportional voting. 

The opposition says that the majoritarian election model is unfair, failing to reflect the will of voters. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

Ruling party officials have dismissed the accusations, stating that they were unable to convince the party’s majoritarian MPs to vote for the bill.

• Ruling party leader Ivanishvili says he’s “disappointed” bill was scrapped, accuses opposition

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 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.