Opposition Plans to Continue Protests and Picketing

As the Parliament of Georgia is preparing to officially resume its legislative activity from tomorrow, February 4, the opposition is announcing it intends to continue protests and picketing.

"If the government does not change this electoral system, the opposition has 'plan b.' We are going to arrange a 'corridor of shame' in front of the parliament tomorrow,” Sergi Kapanadze, one of the members of the European Georgia party, told reporters.

He said the opposition would continue boycotting Parliament, however, he said they were ready to take part in meetings with the authorities.

“We are ready to take part in the next round of meetings. We don't know the date yet, but we expect our international partners to offer us a specific date soon. We should all understand that the main task of these meetings is to agree on electoral systems that ensure proportionate and equitable representation of the people in parliament. Accordingly, any proposal that serves this purpose is acceptable to us.

"We already had two specific proposals, one of them involves multi-mandate constituencies and the other the so-called "German model". Accordingly, such models may be discussed. The models presented by the government, including 100/50 or any other, do not serve this purpose and cannot be discussed by us. If the government does not engage in this dialogue and does not change this electoral system, there is a plan “b” from the opposition. This is an agreement in the majoritarian constituencies for the nomination of joint candidates for majoritarian constituencies. In this case, the government will lose the elections in 2020 even more severely," the opposition leader Kapanadze stated.

The protests in Tbilisi were sparked after the rejection of an election bill in November 2019, proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, offering the transition to a fully proportional electoral system from 2020 instead of 2024.

The demonstrators accuse the current state leadership of "breaking its promise and cheating people" as the ruling party agreed to conduct the 2020 parliamentary elections using a fully proportional electoral system, during the internationally renowned June protests in Tbilisi. Protesters demand the second hearing in Parliament regarding the proportional elections, and some are pushing for snap elections. 

By Ana Dumbadze 

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