Opposition Parties Adopt Joint Declaration on Elections
The opposition parties in Georgia have adopted a joint declaration on the upcoming October elections at a meeting held in the office of the Labor Party.
About 30 parties joined the declaration, based on which "Georgia's democratic opposition agrees that Ivanishvili's oligarchic government poses the greatest challenge to the country and its democratic development."
The opposition members claim that "Their task will not be to protect the votes of citizens with certain political tastes but to protect the transparency of the entire electoral process," adding that to achieve this task, they intend to develop specific cooperation mechanisms.
"The opposition parties also agree to work together with international observers to prevent doubts about the legitimacy of the elections.
"By defeating Ivanishvili in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the harmful tradition of electoral manipulation will be over in Georgia," reads the declaration.
"I consider it very important that for the first time in the history of Georgia, 30 parties have signed a declaration to defend each other's votes," Nino Burjanadze, leader of the United Georgia party, told reporters after a meeting held at the Labor Party office.
In her words, "This is a sign of hope for the public that Georgian Dream will not be able to manipulate the votes."
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Georgia on 31 October 2020 to elect the 150 members of Parliament.
This year, elections will be held under a new electoral law, which stipulates that 120 deputies will be elected via proportional representation, while another 30 will be elected from single-member constituencies.
For proportional representation seats, the electoral threshold is 1%. For single-member constituencies, a candidate will gain the status of a parliamentary deputy if they gain 50% of votes in the first round. If that does not happen, the top two candidates will take part in a run-off whose winner will be elected.
The US Embassy at Tbilisi lauded these agreements, as did leading European diplomats who have desired the 2020 elections to be free and transparent. No party can obtain a majority of seats without getting at least 40% of votes from the electorate.
By Ana Dumbadze
Image: 1TV