The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) and the opposition parties that passed the 1% threshold in the October 31 parliamentary elections, held fourth round of post-election talks on December 8 at U.S. Ambassador Kelly Degnan’s residence, with EU Ambassador Carl Hartzell in attendance.
In their comments following the 5-hours-long meeting, the leaders mostly reiterated their stances from the previous round on December 7, citing fundamental differences over holding snap elections and releasing “political prisoners.” Politicians, however, indicated bringing their positions closer on the two remaining issues of the election system and election administration reforms.
Archil Talakvadze, incumbent Parliamentary Speaker and Georgian Dream’s key representative in the ongoing negotiations, said after the meeting that positions regarding the election reform got so close that “this issue may lay the basis to an agreement.”
Opposition party leaders, on the other hand, implied that they will not be considering ending the parliamentary boycott without reaching an agreement on the first two key issues.
The GD and opposition parties are holding talks to overcome the post-election political impasse after all of the key opposition parties rejected election results and decided to boycott the parliament. Another meeting is expected to take place today, on December 10, a day prior to the first session of the 10th convocation Parliament scheduled for December 11.
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