Page 15 - BNE_magazine_12_2019 dec19

bne December 2019 Companies & Markets I 15
Tbilisi on edge as Georgians take to streets over rejection of voting reform
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
Demonstrations involving thousands were seen in the centre of Tbilisi as Georgians expressed their anger over their parliament’s failure to adopt a constitutional amendment on a transition to a voting system with proportional representation.
Crowds of opposition supporters and civil society activists
on November 14 formed outside the parliament building
and blocked traffic on the capital’s main thoroughfare. Frustrated that the legislation had not been adopted in time for the run-up to the 2020 general election, they demanded the Georgian Dream-led government's resignation and snap parliamentary polls. Changing the electoral system from a mixed system to a proportional one was a key demand of the thousands of demonstrators who rallied for weeks in Tbilisi
in June and July. More than 240 people were injured in those demonstrations after riot police responded with rubber bullets and water cannons when a crowd attempted to storm the parliament after anti-Kremlin sentiment spread in response
to the visit of a Russian MP who was offered the speaker’s chair for an address.
The constitutional amendment fell after attracting only
101 votes – that was 12 short of the three-quarters majority needed for such legislation to pass. All 44 opposition MPs supported the bill, which would also introduce a zero-percent entry threshold for securing representation in parliament and forbid the forming of election blocs for campaigns. Three Georgian Dream lawmakers voted against it and 37 abstained. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tamar Chugoshvili, and 11 fellow MPs quit the Georgian Dream ruling coalition after the rejection of the bill, Agenda.ge reported.
Change “long overdue” say PACE representatives
Co-rapporteurs on Georgia for the Parliamentary Assembly of human rights, democracy and rule of law body Council of Europe (PACE) released a joint statement after the amendment was defeated. It was signed by Titus Corlatan (Romania) and Claude Kern (France).
"We regret the lack of support for the bill. The introduction of a proportional representation system was a call from all
Scene at protest rally on November 15 on Rustaveli Avenue in front of Georgia's parliament building.
stakeholders and its introduction was long overdue. Given the consensus of all stakeholders on the need to introduce
a proportional system for the 2020 parliamentary elections, the bill failed to understand [the situation]. This is a step backwards," said Corlatan and Kern.
The co-rapporteurs called on all the political parties, and especially Georgian Dream, to consider whether the amendment could be reflected in the constitution before the general election.
CPJ.org has issued a safety advisory for journalists
Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Carl Hartzell, said the EU has refrained from voicing an opinion on whether or not a proportional representation system would be the better option for Georgia in the 2020 general election since selecting a voting system is primarily the choice of the Georgian people and political parties.
But Hartzell added: "Since summer, however, there has been a political consensus and a joint commitment to work in this direction. Against this background, I see a clear risk that going back on this commitment at this stage would be seen as breaking the trust among the political parties, the trust with wider segments of the population, and to again increase the polarisation in the run-up to the 2020 elections. I hope the parliament will take this into account in their vote later today."
US Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the initiators of the US Support Act to Georgia, responded to the voting down
of the constitutional amendment by saying it was a gift for Russian President Vladimir Putin.“The failure will destroy the progress Georgia has made to reach complete independence and separation from an aggressive, encroaching neighbor in Russia,” Kinzinger said.
“During my visit to the country last week, I was pleased by what seemed to be the inevitability of this reform package. This commitment was made to the international community, and most importantly, to the Georgian people. It is my hope that this situation can be fixed – and fixed very soon,” he said.
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