Republicans support amendments in election code
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, March 30
Parliament Chair Davit Usupashvili supports making amendments in the election code, and emphasizes that the majoritarian election system (when the MP is elected by direct voting) should be replaced by the proportional system (when the parties receive the number of MP mandates proportional to the votes it gathered in the election).
The statement came after the third meeting of the State Constitutional Commission at Parliament.
The speaker also stressed that there are serious gaps in the legislation about the size of the majoritarian districts.
According to him, the imbalance has reached 25-30 %, while the international standards have a maximum difference of 15-20 %.
Concerning the constitutional amendments within the commission that was created under the new government of Georgia, Usupashvili said that the government’s aim is not to fit the country’s major legislation to its interests
"I emphasize that our task is to improve the current constitution and to adopt a new one. As you know, improving the constitution is a continuous process in every country. I cannot find a single country where the constitution is not updated or changed, especially in democratic ones. Georgia is no exception," he noted.
However, Usupashvili noted that this process may create a sense of constitutional instability and a feeling that constitutional norms can be changed as easily as other legislative acts.
He asked the members of the commission to work hard because the final outcome should be ready by September 15, 2015.
Member of the majority Tina Khidasheli says she supports implementing a regional proportional system. According to her, it is the fairest and most democratic system.
The opposition parties welcomed the Election Code amendments, but they criticized the Georgian Dream (GD) for being absent at the meeting that was attended by the non-parliamentary opposition parties, NGOs and experts.
“We have demanded the amendments in the election code. Republicans from the coalition support the changes. However, the major problem now is that we do not know the position of the whole coalition,” member of New Rights Pikria Chikhradze said.
