Central Election Commission sums up parliamentary election results amid opposition protest
Having summed up the election results at today’s session, the CEC will now send the document to the parliament of Georgia, which will hold the first session of the tenth convocation within ten days. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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The Central Election Commission convened a session earlier today to summarise the final results of Georgia’s parliamentary elections.
Based on the CEC results, nine parties, which have overcome the mandatory 1% threshold, are eligible to take up the parliamentary mandates.
Opposition keeps on accusing CEC chair Tamar Zhvania of falsifying the elections. Photo: CEC webpage
Below is the number of MPs per party in the tenth convocation of parliament:
- Georgian Dream - 90 (60 proportional and 30 majoritarian list)
- United National Movement/Strength in Unity - 36
- European Georgia - 5
- Alliance of Patriots - 4
- Strategy Aghmashenebeli - 4
- Girchi - 4
- Lelo - 4
- Citizens - 2
- Labour Party - 1
Following the agreement between the ruling party and opposition, 120 seats in the tenth convocation of parliament will be distributed via a proportional vote and the remaining 30 - via the majoritarian system.
However, claiming that the CEC has falsified election results in favour of the ruling party, opposition refuses to take up their mandates.
EG member Davit Gurgenidze is hanging a paper on the wall which reads ‘elections have been falsified’. Photo: 1TV.ge
Today three opposition members of election administration - Davit Kirtadze (UNM), Davit Gurgenidze (EG) and Khatuna Skhirtladze (AoP) - have left the CEC session in protest, claiming the 2020 parliamentary elections have been ‘rigged’, therefore, they refused to participate in today's ‘farce’.
Meanwhile, CEC chair Tamar Zhvania said Kirtadze and Gurgenidze have expressed similar positions back at the summarising session following the 2016 parliamentary elections and left in protest.
However, Zhvania said, despite the accusations from opposition, the ninth convocation of parliament has worked throughout four years.
Everyone in this country is aware of the general assessments of the international organisations and their position that the elections were competitive and, overall, fundamental freedoms were respected”, Zhvania said.
She further noted that despite certain concerns, no legitimacy of the elections have been put under the question by the international organisations.
Meanwhile young members of opposition and civic activists rallied outside the CEC claiming that Tamar Zhvania has rigged the elections. Photo: 1TV.ge
Following the session, CEC spokesperson Natia Ioseliani said the election administration has ensured to hold the elections in safe environment amid coronavirus pandemic so that the voters could freely cast ballot, including in quarantine and self-isolation.
Ioseliani also said that the CEC has carried out all of its activities in full line with the law despite ‘pressure’ and ‘disinformation’ aimed to discredit this ‘independent institution’.
Having summed up the election results at today’s session, the CEC will now send the document to the parliament of Georgia, which will hold the first session of the tenth convocation within ten days.
The eight opposition parties and election blocs who overcame the one per cent threshold in the October 31 elections and are now demanding repeat elections say that they are ready to hold a third round of talks with the ruling Georgian Dream party with the mediation of the diplomatic corps.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has finished counting votes for the second round of the parliamentary elections in Georgia with the ruling Georgian Dream party winning all of the 17 majoritarian constituencies and the mayoral by-elections in Kutaisi.
Opposition parties which have refused to enter the parliament following the October 31 elections have held a rally in the centre of Tbilisi amid US State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit to Georgia earlier today.
“Georgia’s parliamentary elections were competitive and, overall, fundamental freedoms were respected”, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its preliminary statement today.
European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi has underlined ‘the need for cross-party dialogue’ during a phone talk with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia earlier today.
The ruling Georgian Dream party and the leaders of eight opposition parties and blocs who were voted in during the October 31 parliamentary elections have held a third meeting with the mediation of foreign ambassadors earlier today to find a way out of the current political crisis. The opposition leaders who say that the elections were fabricated and refuse to take up their mandates described the meeting as ‘positive and useful, as several issues have been agreed.’
The newly elected 10th national legislature of Georgia will hold its first session on December 11, at 12:00, the decree by the president of Georgia reads.
The fifth round of election talks mediated by foreign ambassadors between the ruling Georgian Dream party and eight opposition parties and blocs has been postponed.
Five opposition parties and election blocs that were voted into parliament have submitted a request to Georgia’s Central Election Commission asking for their party lists to be annulled, meaning candidates on the lists would not be able to replace opposition MPs who will officially refuse to take up their mandates in parliament.
Archil Talakvadze has been elected chair of the Georgian parliament with 86 votes earlier today, during the first session of the 10th parliament of Georgia.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has adjusted its results of parallel vote tabulation (PVT) based on which the ruling Georgian Dream ruling party receives 47.6% of votes instead of 45.8%, while the opposition United National Movement/Strength in Unity election bloc receives 27.4% of votes instead of 26.4% in the October 31 parliamentary elections.
One opposition MP has decided to enter the Supreme Council of Adjara which is the legislative body of Georgia’s Autonomous Republic of Adjara in the west.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has initiated a bill which says that if political parties refuse to take up their mandates in parliament they will not receive state funding (or have it suspended for a year), their MPs will not receive salaries and they will not be able to use free media time during municipal and parliamentary elections.
The Georgian parliament has passed a bill in its first reading earlier today which strips parties of state funding if they refuse to take up their mandates in parliament.
One of the main faces of the European Georgia opposition party, Elene Khoshtaria, has left the party and announced the creation of a new political force.
"I have made the decision to finally retire from politics and fully distance myself from the reins of power. I am leaving the post of party chairman, as well as the party itself and am returning to my pre-2011, private lifestyle. I will turn 65 years old in just a few weeks, and this is one of the important factors in making the decision to retire from politics,” Ivanishvili said, adding that the step ‘which is dictated by the desire to advance young people to the forefront...will not only not weaken, but will, in fact, further strengthen the ruling party.’
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and the ruling Georgian Dream party members have stated that the decision of the party founder and the head Bidzina Ivanishvili to leave politics is ‘exemplary’, while opposition parties have described the move as ‘irresponsible and an expression of weakness.’
Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) writes in its report that eight (of nine) political parties and election blocs which won seats in parliament in the October 31 parliamentary elections spent 37.3 million GEL on election campaigning between September 1 and November 17 of 2020.
Six of eight opposition parties and election blocs who have won seats in the 10th convocation of the Georgian parliament have released a joint statement earlier today in which they said that ‘only the conduct of repeat, democratic parliamentary elections can solve the current political crisis’.
Lelo for Georgia political party leader and co-founder of TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze has urged for a large-scale, national reconciliation in Georgia after the conduct of repeat parliamentary elections.
The Georgian parliament has formed a temporary commission to investigate alleged election violations and their impact on the results of the October 31 parliamentary election. The legislators have agreed to establish the three-month commission at a plenary session earlier today.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which observed Georgia’s parliamentary elections last year, said in its final report that ‘despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic’ the elections were ‘competitive and administered efficiently’.
The United States Embassy in Georgia welcomes the findings of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) final report on Georgia’s parliamentary elections. The US Embassy says the report ‘underscores the continued need for important reforms, particularly in the areas of campaign finance, electoral administration compositions, and dispute resolution’.