Georgia's ruling party rejects its promise to lower electoral threshold to 2%

Electoral threshold will not be lowered in Georgia

The ruling Georgian Dream party is no longer going to make amendments to the country’s constitution and lower the electoral threshold to 2 % in the next parliamentary elections. At this stage, constitutional amendments on the electoral reform will not be considered, said the chairman of the ruling party, Irakli Kobakhidze.

According to the current constitution, parliamentary elections in 2024 must be held under a fully proportional system with a 5 % threshold.

Constitutional amendments are a part of the so-called ‘Charles Michel’s Document’ – an agreement signed by the ruling party and part of the opposition and mediated by the European Union. According to it, the next parliamentary elections should be held with a two percent threshold. The amendments have already been adopted by the parliament in the first reading.

However, Georgian Dream later announced its withdrawal from the Charles Michel agreement, and, in the second reading, MP from the ruling party, Shalva Papuashvili, spoke in favor of raising the threshold to 3%.

According to Kobakhidze, the approval of the changes “will depend on the behavior and actions of various structures”. Shalva Papuashvili also added that after the exiting the Charles Michel agreement, the authorities are no longer obliged to change the constitution.

“The barrier, which will be introduced from 2024, fully complies with democratic standards. This is a 5% threshold, and, from 2024, a fully proportional system with a 5% threshold will be adopted.

“As for the 2% barrier, we have not discussed yet whether it is better than the 5% threshold – it may be worse”, Irakli Kobakhidze said.

Georgian Dream is once again trying to carry out political fraud, said Nika Melia, chairman of the leading opposition party United National Movement. He demanded speaker of parliament Kakha Kuchava to present a plan by the end of the year, describing in detail when and how the amendments to the constitution would be adopted.

According to Nika Melia, the United National Movement remained in parliament only to pass amendments to the constitution, and if this does not happen, the party will leave parliament.

Some non-governmental organizations also responded to the initiative of the ruling party.

The joint open statement signed by 18 NGOs state that the EU-brokered ‘Charles Michel’ agreement called for an ambitious electoral reform, including holding the next parliamentary elections under a fully proportional system and introducing a natural or maximum two percent barrier for the next two parliamentary elections.

The organizations note that the promise made by the Georgian Dream to international and local partners and the public, serves to increase the level of democracy in the country, must be fulfilled “because this is the main obligation of the ruling party”.

“It should be noted that the amendments to the constitution were adopted in the first reading with the unanimous support of opposition parties in parliament. This is a rare and long-awaited example of agreement and cooperation between parties in the Georgian politics. Rejecting the bill will further damage the polarized political environment in the country and challenge the credibility of the ruling party”, the statement reads.