Parliament Speaker’s Pre-Election Address

In a pre-election address on the eve of the October 8 vote, speaker of outgoing parliament, Davit Usupashvili, has called on the political parties to “declare unambiguously that they recognize the results summarized by the election administration.”

Usupashvili, whose Republican Party was in coalition with ruling GDDG party up until late July but is now running independently in the October 8 parliamentary elections, said that ensuring holding of the elections at the highest level is “a matter of national pride.”

“It is of utmost importance for all the major actors and stakeholders to cope with this task at the highest level in compliance with law and in line with our rich national traditions,” he said.

“First of all, it is essential for all the political leaders and political parties to declare unambiguously that they recognize the [election] results summarized by the election administration and that they will not pursue their future activities based on results received from their own polls or calculations,” Usupashvili said.

“We can unconditionally express our trust towards the Georgian state and election administration, because we see that significant steps forward have been made in Georgia in terms of political liberties and electoral democracy.”

“Second, it is very important for the state institutions – all of them and not only law enforcement agencies – to perform their constitutional functions thoroughly and impartially, to serve the Georgian state and not any of the political party, its leader or any other interests. Everyone, who today wields state power – be it a police officer, gamgebeli [head of municipality] or other official – can make their choices freely; but when they are executing state powers, they should be absolutely neutral and unbiased. It is very important today and tomorrow it will be even more important,” he said.
 
He also said that these elections will be held “under the conditions of unprecedented political freedom.”

“We have made serious steps over the recent years in order for each of you to have an opportunity to make a free choice. But with more freedom comes more responsibility,” Usupashvili said. “I am sure that more political freedom created this very situation, wherein a significant portion of our society has remained undecided [about political preferences] up until the last minute; and that’s right, we should think much, because we are responsible for the choice we are making.”

He also stressed that because of Georgia’s mixed electoral system, the election process will most likely not be completed on the election day on October 8 as second round runoffs for majoritarian MP seats are expected in many of the 73 single-mandate constituencies.

“It also means that how seats will be distributed in the next Parliament may not be clear tomorrow evening,” Usupashvili said. “So, we all – the state, voters, political parties – are facing a test to pass through this period between October 8 and second round runoffs in dignity, not to allow any speculations, not to allow any attempts of creating an impression of power vacuum. That’s very important,” he said.

He also called on the voters to “make a positive choice in favor of those people, who would do better things for the country, instead of making a negative choice in favor of those, who would better continue settling scores with opponents and dividing the country.”

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