Opposition Lays Out ‘Compromise Proposal’

The opposition said it would end its hunger strike if the authorities agreed to its “compromise proposal” on electing majoritarian MPs.

The eight-party opposition coalition and the New Rights Party sent a written proposal to the ruling party on March 20, proposing the election of 75 majoritarian MPs based on ‘regional proportional lists.’

“If this single demand is met by the authorities, we are ready to end the hunger strike and resume talks with the authorities on other election-related issues,” Koba Davitashvili, the leader of the Party of People, part of the eight-party coalition, said.
He was speaking after a group of opposition politicians met with Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, late on Thursday evening, March 20. The meeting came after the Patriarch called on the opposition to end the hunger strike and told the authorities to take steps to defuse political tension.

“We will not stop the hunger strike if this single demand put forth by us is not met,” Davitashvili added, “and the Patriarch will understand this decision of ours.”

Electing majoritarian MPs through ‘regional proportional lists’ allows parties or election blocs to nominate several candidates in each constituency (the number of seats available would depend on the size of the constituency). Seats in the parliament, with this system, would be allocated proportionally, based on the votes received by parties in a particular constituency. The system entails setting an election threshold and would preclude independent candidates, as all candidates must be nominated by a party or an election bloc.

Davitashvili also said that seats for Abkhazian and South Ossetian constituencies would also be envisaged under this system.

He said that the proposal was “a compromise” because the opposition were willing to accept a recently passed constitutional amendment which increased the number of majoritarian MPs in the new parliament from 50 to 75.

This is the first time the opposition has made a joint single demand since the eight-party coalition and the New Rights launched a hunger strike on March 9 and March 10, respectively.

The ruling party has been pushing a rule envisaging electing one majoritarian MP in each of the 75 single-mandate constituencies. The rule has already been endorsed with its first hearing. The second hearing is due for March 21.

The ruling party is better positioned to gain more seats with the single-mandate majoritarian election system, especially as the law stipulates that a candidate winning more than others and more than 30% of the vote would be declared the outright winner in the first round without the need for a runoff.

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