PACE, CoE, EU welcome 2020 proportional elections in Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, June 27
Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), EU and the Council of Europe (CoE) have welcomed the offer made by the Georgian Dream ruling party this week to hold the 2020 parliamentary elections with the proportional voting and a zero threshold, an initiative voiced amid protests in Tbilisi.
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia, Titus Corlatean and Claude Kern, stated that the decision would benefit the country.
“The introduction of a fully proportional election system before the next legislative elections take place has been a long-standing recommendation of PACE, so we strongly support this initiative,” they said.
The co-rapporteurs emphasised that this initiative will need a change of the transitional provisions of the Georgian constitution, which is unlikely to succeed without the support of the opposition.
Corlatean and Kern called upon all stakeholders to give their full support to the change of the electoral system.
“We have seen that the introduction of a fully proportional system has often fallen victim to the lack of genuine cooperation between the ruling majority and opposition. We sincerely hope that history will not repeat itself in this case.”
The co-rapporteurs have plans to visit the country in mid-September, for the preparation of their next report.
Head of the CoE Office in Georgia Christian Urse says that the implementation of this initiative needs the involvement of all parliamentary actors to ensure that the relevant majority adopts the constitutional amendments.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell believes that the change will further support the country’s democratic development.
“This presents an opportunity for all stakeholders to come together to agree a way forward that strengthens parliamentary democracy and pluralism in Georgia. We expect a broad and consultative process and call on all sides to engage in good faith,” Hartzell wrote.
The Georgian Dream ruling party announced on June 24 that they were ready to conduct the 2020 parliamentary elections on the proportional electoral system only, which has been one of the top demands of the Georgian opposition for years, also raised by the protesters during the ongoing rallies in Tbilisi.
As of now, Georgia has a mixed electoral system with 77 seats in its 150-member parliament allocated proportionally under the party-list among parties or electoral blocs which clear a 5 percent threshold in the race.
The remaining 73 MPs are elected in 73 single-member districts, known as “majoritarian” mandates. A majoritarian MP candidate has to gain more than 50 percent of votes to take a seat in the legislative body.
The new constitution of Georgia, adopted in 2017, which came into play after last year’s presidential elections, reads that Georgia moved to fully proportional elections from 2024, which have been hailed as “unjust” by the opposition.
The rallies in Tbilisi were sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in Georgia and an address made by a Russian legislator Sergey Gavrilov from the seat of Georgia’s parliamentary speaker during the 26th assembly on Orthodoxy, an international forum with 25 countries presented.
Demonstrators say that the MPs from the occupant country must not have been allowed in the Georgian parliament.
They have demanded the dismissal of parliament speaker, interior minister, snap parliamentary elections with the proportional system only and the release of the people detained on June 20, when the rally was dispersed by special force unit.
