Christian Urse on Introduction of Proportional Elections in Georgia

The Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Christian Urse, has released a statement regarding the Georgian Government's decision about introduction of the proportional electoral system for 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia.

“We continue cooperation with all our partners in Georgia to improve the electoral framework. The PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia strongly supported the introduction of the proportional electoral system for the next elections. Implementation of this initiative needs the involvement of all parliamentary actors to ensure that the constitutional amendments are adopted by the relevant majority.

"At the same time, we will continue to support our partners in order to hold discussions and negotiations on all technical aspects of these changes, taking into account the reports of the Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE/ODIHR election observation missions. This will contribute to the strengthening of pluralism and democracy in Georgia,” reads the statement.

The Georgian government agreed to hold proportional parliamentary elections in Georgia in 2020, Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Prime Minister of Georgia, stated at a briefing held at the ruling party Georgian Dream’s office on June 24.

He added that the 2020 parliamentary elections will be conducted with a zero election barrier.

The holding of snap parliamentary elections with a proportional electoral system was one of the main demands of the participants of the peaceful demonstrations held in front of the Parliament building since June 20. 

By Ana Dumbadze