Discussions on constitutional amendments on electoral threshold 

On 26 march, heated discussions between the political parties in Georgia were held in regard to the draft constitutional amendment to lower the electoral threshold from 5% to 3%. The amendment needs the support of 113 parliamentarians, while the ruling Georgian Dream (GD), Citizen’s and party of European Socialists who are in favour of the amendment hold only 96 seats.  

“In general, the United Opposition bloc, led by the United National Movement (UNM), will support the lowering of the electoral threshold for small and medium-sized parties. However, the most important thing for us is that the issue of electoral changes is discussed in a single package, and this relates to the determination of the early elections date and the release of political prisoners,” said Levan Bezhashvili from the UNM. “The initiation of this draft looks like an attempt to legitimise the illegitimate parliament during the political crisis,” said Giga Bokeria from European Georgia. He emphasised that lowering the threshold falls within the interests of the opposition, but that it should serve to ease the crisis. 

“GD offers us a threshold, a percentage which we did not get in the last elections. It is not serious,” said Vakhtang Megrelishvili from the Girchi party. “We can agree on something that needs a constitutional amendment and 113 votes during the negotiations. I think it is a wrong attempt to gather a constitutional majority in parliament. As for the content, this is a one-time offer for 2024. It is also somewhat awkward to make this offer. After all, we are most interested in lowering the threshold, but the GD offers us that percentage of votes as a threshold that we failed to win. I can hope to get more than 5% in the election and eventually win, but it is not serious,” he stated. The leader of Lelo Mamuka Khazaradze assessed the draft of constitutional amendments as an attempt to demonstrate some planned changes to the public and European partners. He believes that individual initiatives have no perspective. 

The GD parliamentarian Irakli Kadagishvili stressed the political spectrum fails to understand what the real recovery of political processes needs. “It is a strange assessment when someone presents the proposed constitutional changes as bait. The topic of discussion at the request of many political opponents was what is now presented as a legislative initiative,” said the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Mikheil Sarjveladze. He believes the draft constitutional amendments are good for the country.

Gakharia’s shadow looms over the ruling team

On the same day Georgia’s current Culture Minister and former Justice Minister Tea Tsulkuliani responded to the announcement by the country’s former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia that he is to return to politics after his resignation (Caucasus Watch reported), saying that he would be the ruling team's “real opposition.” “Gakharia’s return, no matter how surprising, is not detrimental to our team. I do not understand why this is good for him, I, as a politician, have… doubts about it,” she said. 

“I hope he knows what he is doing. He is a highly professional person and if he comes out on the political scene, he will be our real opposition. He knows our team very well. I was the deputy prime minister, the minister of justice during his leadership and he knows well where my strengths and weaknesses are, but, in turn, I also have the same information about him. For me personally, it will be an interesting process of opposition, how much it will end with his victory, I have great doubts about that,” she added.

The former head of Georgia’s government administration Kakhaber Kemoklidze was also vocal towards the current political developments in the country and Gakharia’s resignation. He particularly stressed the debate in the US senate regarding the political crisis in Georgia (Caucasus Watch reported), noting that in the last 8-9 years, this was the first instance that such extremely negative statements have been expressed in the US senate in relation to the Georgian government and, in some cases, the radical steps taken by the opposition. Kemklidze also touched upon Gakharia’s resignation and said that the American partners assessed his resignation as a correct and principled decision, as it served the purpose of preventing further radicalisation and polarisation in the country.