US Ambassador Degnan: rejected electoral bill ‘risks the tyranny of the majority’
US Ambassador Kelly Degnan says Georgian political parties should keep their promise and approve an electoral bill to lower the election threshold. Photo: US Embassy press office.
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US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan says that if the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party rejects an electoral bill which would establish a two percent election threshold for the next two parliamentary elections, the move may ‘risk [establishing] the tyranny of the majority.’
After the adoption of the bill on its first reading in September 2021, according to the EU-mediated agreement signed by the ruling and opposition parties the same year, the GD said that they had ‘no obligation’ to support the amendments because the party withdrew from the agreement in July of this year.
The GD says that if they decide to vote for the changes, ‘it will be a gift to the opposition.’
Degnan stated earlier today that ‘some do not seem to understand that a democracy requires a plurality of views. One person, one party ruling – everything works against that.’
She says that if Georgia maintains a five percent election threshold ‘two or three parties’ may take seats in the state legislature.
That is not the trajectory that would allow greater diversity, greater plurality in the parliament which would allow more Georgian views and perspectives to be represented there,” Ambassador Degnan said.
She also said that the approval of four new judges to the country’s Supreme Court by the parliament yesterday was ‘disappointing.’
It is hard to understand why there was such a need to rush through these appointments, despite the commitment to undertake meaningful and comprehensive judicial reform, especially when so many other challenges facing this country have been neglected,” Degnan said.
She stated that Georgia now has four more judges to the Supreme Court who have been appointed ‘through a process that was not transparent and accountable.’
Eighteen Georgian NGOs say in a joint statement that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party ‘must keep its promise’ on a lower election threshold for the next two parliamentary elections and a fully proportional electoral system, and ‘must support’ the constitutional changes which were proposed in the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says that it may accept a two per cent election threshold for the next two parliamentary elections, noting that ‘it will be [a sign of] the goodwill of the GD and will be dependent on how the opposition will act.’
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, Irakli Kobakhidze, says that the party ‘has no obligation’ to support the constitutional amendments which offer a lower election threshold for the next two parliamentary elections.
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, MP Irakli Kobakhidze has reminded the parliamentary opposition that constitutional amendments related to electoral and other issues are a result of the party’s goodwill as the GD has withdrawn from the EU-mediated agreement.The agreement signed by the ruling party and the majority of opposition parties on April 19, 2021 obliged the signatories to carry out large-scale electoral and judiciary reforms.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has welcomed that former president Mikheil Saakashvili was taken to the court for the second time earlier today to attend a trial hearing in a case concerning him.
Georgian Parliament Vice Speaker Archil Talakvadze has responded to US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan’s statement regarding an electoral bill and stated that ‘if there was tyranny and autocratic rule’ in the country, it was under former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s government.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan says that she respects the experience and professionalism of the head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze in the constitutional law, but says that the party ‘should keep its promise’ and support the electoral bill which offers a two percent election threshold in the next two parliamentary elections.
Head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, Anri Okhanashvili, says he is eager to listen to a ‘concrete argument’ from the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Erika Olson on why she is unhappy with the Georgian government’s efforts to reform the country’s electoral and judiciary systems.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Erika Olson says that the Georgian Dream government ‘has committed to judicial and electoral reforms’ and that Washington ‘really wants to see it follow through on those commitments.’