Parliament Speaker rejects opposition’s intentions to annul party lists following elections

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday  said parties that had overcome the five percent threshold in Saturday’s parliamentary elections would only be  able to annul member lists of the candidates who had not made it to the legislative body.

Papuashvili’s comments came after opposition parties threatened to boycott the newly elected Parliament as part of their move to refuse to accept the outcome of the election, and said they were rejecting parliamentary mandates.

“A [political] party cannot annul the list of those who have become MPs. If an MP demands the termination of their mandate, the Parliament itself takes the decision over the matter”, the Speaker said.

We saw this [same] movie in 2020 and 2021 - at that time they said that they were annulling the lists, which was a lie, as the Parliament had convened and its powers had been recognised”, the Speaker said in reference to previous parliamentary and local elections when the domestic opposition had threatened a boycott.

“The Parliament is scheduled to convene for a session no later than 10 days after the publication of the summary protocol [of the elections]. The first session is appointed by the President of Georgia, and we see that it seems that Mrs. Salome [Zourabichvili] is not going to do it”, he added.

On the 10th day, the Parliament will be required to convene - therefore, if she does not appoint it, it will still convene. A vote will be held, the powers of 150 MPs will be recognised, and thus the Parliament will be empowered”, the lawmaker noted.

According to the results from the Central Election Commission, the ruling Georgian Dream party has secured 53.9 percent of the vote, followed by the Coalition for Change with 11 percent, Unity to Save Georgia with 10.1 percent, Strong Georgia with 8.8 percent, and Gakharia for Georgia with 7.7 percent.