One-time entry into Parliament - Republicans’ initiative
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, February 12
If the Georgian Dream submits a draft constitutional amendment to parliament that calls for a natural threshold for the 2024 parliamentary elections, two republican lawmakers, Khatuna Samnidze and Tamar Kordzaia, are ready to support it in all three hearings. As the party chairwoman Khatuna Samnidze explained, this does not mean continuing to work in the parliament, rather ‘holding hands to for a better future’.
"If the government dares and is ready to offer us a system with a natural threshold proportional system, to register this bill, we, the Republicans, are ready to support it during the voting.”
Samnidze explained that she has no intention of working with the current parliament. According to her, the government inadequately assesses the situation and refuses to compromise.
The chairwoman claims that her party's idea - to run in the vote if the draft law on the natural barrier is registered - does not go against the agreement of the opposition parties. According to her, there is a stagnation in the negotiation process. The parties have moved into their own entrails and the intra reorganization processes have started; and in such context, "one of the important fronts, which is related to the constitutional change, must be attacked."
"As an opposition party, I will do my best not to have a bipartisan parliament, a one-party parliament, polarization and a guaranteed multi-party parliament. One guarantee of this is the proportional system, the natural threshold. The Georgian Dream says that they will register such a bill if opposition enters the parliaments, because without them there will not be enough votes.
Therefore, we tell them the opposite - the registration of a bill does not require our entry into Parliament.” explained Samnidze, adding that this is an idea around which the entire opposition united 2 years ago and it is unimaginable that a political party would not vote for this opportunity for the country to adopt such an electoral system.
The position of the chairwoman of the Republican Party, is not unacceptable for Armaz Akhvlediani, who has been elected a member of parliament from the list of European Georgia.
“As I understand it, if the GD proposes an important bill, let's go in and support it, I do not see anything dramatic here,” Akhvlediani said, adding that many decisions will be useful and in his view, this does not mean refusing to boycott.
Strategy Builder and Lelo don't share the position of the Republicans to support the constitutional change related to natural barrier to participate in the one-time voting in the Parliament. According to Bezhashvili, the UN will support the natural barrier in the context of early elections.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, chairman of the Georgian Dream faction, said at a briefing on February 8 that the ruling party was ready to consider a barrier-free electoral system for the 2024 elections. Mdinaradze responded to the proposal of the party Girchi which envisages the establishment of a natural threshold for the parliamentary elections. According to Mdinaradze, in the memorandum, which is open to all parliamentary parties, the Georgian Dream has already committed itself to lowering the electoral threshold for the 2024 parliamentary elections from 0 to 3% if there are enough votes (mandates). According to him, the ruling team is considering all options, including the security system.
The memorandum, which is signed by the Citizens party in addition to the Georgian Dream, reads: "According to the first paragraph of the memorandum, a threshold of less than 5 %, not more than 3 %, will be set for the 2024 parliamentary elections." It also states that the threshold will be specified within the framework of public and parliamentary discussions of the relevant constitutional bill.
Under the current constitution, parliamentary elections from 2024 will be held in a fully proportional system with a 5% threshold.
The Georgian Dream did not support the abolition of the mandate of 51 opposition MPs, including the Republicans, in a February 2 plenary vote. One of their demands is to call early parliamentary elections.
