Mediators Call All Parties to March 8 Deal to Vote for Election Reform

Heads of U.S., EU and German diplomatic missions in Georgia, who facilitate the political dialogue between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition, issued a joint statement on June 19 reiterating their appeal to “fully implement the March 8 agreement,” and urging all signatories to ensure that relevant amendments on election reform are adopted by the Parliament.

Draft amendments to the Constitution will be put to a vote on Sunday, June 21 for the first parliamentary hearing.

The group urged all parties to the March 8 deal to participate in the vote to pass changes to the Constitution which foresee introducing a composition based on 120 proportional and 30 majoritarian seats, as well as 1% threshold, and a cap ensuring that no single party that garners less than 40 % of votes will be able claim a majority of seats.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Degnan, German Ambassador Hubert Knirsch and European Ambassador Carl Hartzell underlined that commitments made to address actions conducive to “inappropriate politicization of Georgia’s judicial and electoral processes” will remain “crucial” in the pre-election period, and vowed to “closely monitor” their implementation.

“Passage of these amendments, along with pending election reform legislation that incorporates OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, will advance Georgia’s progress toward a more representative Parliament and contribute to depolarizing the political environment – achievements that we sincerely believe are in the interest of Georgia’s democracy and the Georgian people,” facilitators noted concluding their statement.

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