Opposition Teams Up to Change Election Rules

Five opposition parties gathered on July 16 to jointly push for change in the current election rules.

In a memorandum signed on July 12, leaders from the New Rights, Republican, Conservative, Labor and Industrialists parties laid out their two major demands – changes in the rules regulating the composition of the election commissions and the majoritarian election system.

Fifty new lawmakers, out of a total 150, will be elected through a majoritarian system in the 2008 parliamentary elections. This will be a first-past-the-post, ?winner takes all? system. The party with the biggest share of the vote in any given constituency will take all the constituency’s majoritarian seats.

Currently, the central and district election commissions are composed of certified election officials, who are unaffiliated with any political party. Only the precinct election commissions are composed of representatives from political parties. The opposition wants the top seven political parties to have the right to nominate additional party-affiliated members to the existing election commissions.

The ruling National Movement Party, however, shows no signs of compromising on the two issues.
 
It has though expressed a willingness to discuss another opposition demand – the lowering of the election threshold from the current 7% to at least 5%. 

Opposition leaders, however, insist that changes in the election administration and the majoritarian election system must first be made, before the election threshold issue can be dealt with.

?This is not an ultimatum,” Mamuka Katsitadze of the New Rights party said on July 16. “The opposition offers cooperation? Now we expect a response from the authorities.?

?Our proposals will help to create an atmosphere of equal opportunities, which will contribute to fair competition during the 2008 parliamentary elections,? Kakha Kukava, a lawmaker from the Conservative Party, said.

The Labor Party, in keeping with its past form, was less concilatory. ?If the election rules are not changed, developments will go beyond the normal electoral process and move onto the streets,? Giorgi Gugava of the Labor Party said.

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