EU welcomes political agreement on new electoral system in Georgia

By Trend

European Union (EU) welcomes political agreement on new electoral system in Georgia, Trend reports via the EU.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia, Ambassador Carl Hartzell, congratulated Georgia’s main political parties on reaching an agreement on a new electoral system.

The agreement is the outcome of more than three months of intense negotiations, facilitated by representatives of the European Union, Germany, the Council of Europe and the United States.

“We congratulate all the signatories as they have put the interests of the Georgian citizens and the consolidation of Georgia's democracy first,” added Hartzell.

According to him, the agreement represents a crucial step towards alleviating the tension in Georgia’s political environment in the run-up to the parliamentary elections later this year.

The 2020 election system of Georgia is based on 120 proportional mandates and 30 majoritarian mandates. The new system will have a fair composition of election districts, a 1 percent threshold, and a cap that prevents single parties with less than 40 percent of the votes from getting a majority in parliament.

The wave of rallies in Tbilisi began after the failure of the parliamentary vote on November 14, 2019 regarding the holding of parliamentary elections in the country in 2020.

The parliament failed to approve the transition from a mixed to proportional parliamentary election system since 2020. It was necessary to amend the Georgian constitution, which required the support of 113 out of 150 deputies; however, during the vote, only 101 deputies supported the changes. Most of the MPs who abstained from the voting represented the ruling party, "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia."

Demonstrators demanded early parliamentary elections on a proportional system; the resignation of the current government and its replacement by the interim government; and renewal of the composition of Central Election Commission.