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THE GEORGIAN TIMES: GOVERNMENT CLIMBS DOWN ON ELECTION THRESHOLDS
Following long-running debates the Government has agreed to meet opposition halfway and set a 30 percent threshold for local government elections. But the Alliance for Georgia, led by Irakli Alasania, still insists on there being a higher election barrier for future Mayors to cross.
The election threshold was the key sticking point in debates about the election code. While the opposition demanded a 50 percent threshold, the Government was pushing for the first-past-the-post system, in which there is no required percentage of support at all, victory simply going to the candidate winning a majority of the votes.
“Setting an election threshold is a compromise the Government has made to the opposition,” Pavle Kublashvili, a member of the Parliamentary majority, said after an inter-party working group on electoral reform meeting on November 11. President Saakashvili expressed pleasant surprise at the agreement the opposition and Government had reached. “The [election] code cannot be tailored to the needs of every party and neither the Government nor other political entities want that,” he said, adding that people want to see dialogue and the agreement is a product of dialogue.
The Christian Democrats proposed a 33 percent barrier before the meeting kicked off and the Government’s proposal was thus acceptable for them. The Christian Democrat Vice-Speaker said that the party had agreed to it as further amendments would also change the proportion of single-mandate deputies and those elected on a proportional basis. The Government initially proposed an arrangement of two-thirds single mandate to one third proportional but has finally agreed to parity. The National Democratic Party and Industry Saves Georgia also agreed to the 30 percent barrier if local government bodies included equal numbers of single mandate and proportionally elected representatives. These two parties do not have high popular support, however, as both failed to pass 5 percent election threshold at the 2008 Parliamentary elections.
It is believed that the National Movement will have its hardest battle with the Alliance for Georgia and its candidate for Tbilisi Mayor Irakli Alasania. A poll posted on forum.ge shows that Gigi Ugulava will have a close-run race with Alasania. 600 people answered the question “Who would you vote for if the elections were held tomorrow?” While 29.07 % of votes went to Gigi Ugulava, the current Tbilisi Mayor and potential candidate of the ruling party, an almost equal number, 28.07 %, went to Irakli Alasania.
Alasania, a former Ambassador to the UN, presents himself as a balanced politician and a person ready for dialogue. His Alliance is still insisting on the 50 percent threshold which offers a greater chance of a runoff being held if votes are split between opposition candidates.
Davit Berdzenishvili, a member of the Republican Party which is also part of the Alliance, told journalists that the Government started from a zero percent [threshold] but has climbed to 30 percent, which leaves room for hope that it will further raise the barrier. He said the 30 percent barrier would mean winning a majority with a minority of votes and this is unacceptable. Mamuka Katsiradze from New Rights, another party in the Alliance, said that 30 percent does not give credibility to the person elected as Mayor. He said that the barrier should be such that the election result clearly expresses the opinion of the public.
While the Alliance for Georgia has yet to make a decision, the Government has decided to remove Chair of the Central Election Commission Levan Tarkhnishvili. Tarknishvili was in charge of the CEC last year when Georgia conducted Presidential elections on January 5 and Parliamentary elections on May 21 and was the target of criticism from opposition parties in both cases as they alleged that he conducted election fraud in favour of Saakashvili and the ruling party. The opposition see the removal of Levan Tarkhnishvili as another sign of concession. It is still unclear who will take over this position, but the President is to propose 3 candidates to the opposition in the near future.
The local government elections are slated for spring and debates about the amendments will continue in a heated way as their results will much determine the opposition’s chances of victory.
“The Georgian Times”, November 11, 2009
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