Non-governmental opposition is against midterm elections
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, August 21
The non-parliamentary opposition is boycotting midterm elections in Martvili and Sagarejo districts. They released a joint statement, in which they say that the Georgian Dream Coalition (GD) has left pre-election promises and projects unfulfilled. They also demand the restoration of inter-party group meetings.
“GD party has forgotten its pre-election project about election amendments and in fact, since October 1, 2012, we received no election reform and even more anti-democratic electoral environment”, the statement reads.
The political parties say that with their boycott they aim to attract the attention of international organizations and oblige the government to implement changes in election code, which means the rejection of the majoritarian election system (when the MP is elected by direct voting) and replacing it by the proportional one (when the parties receive the number of MP mandates proportional to the votes it gathered in the election).
The head of the National-Democratic Party, Bachuki Kardava says that the government does not want to confess the deficiencies in the election code and silences over necessary amendments.
“The government offered to implement changes in the election code by 2019; democracy cannot wait long,” he said.
According to the Head of the Free Georgia party, Kakha Kukava, the MPs are directly appointed by the majoritarian system and there is no point of taking part in the election process.
“A boycott is the only way out of the situation and we will show the international organizations that in Georgia, an authoritarian and oligarchic regime is ongoing,” Kukava stressed.
Ten non-parliamentary parties call upon parliamentary opposition parties to take part in the process. In case of inactivity from the Government, they plan to hold rallies too.
It is unknown yet if the parliamentary opposition will join the boycott.
