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Georgia Elects Its Parliament

According to the said results, the following four parties have overcome the 5% threshold for seats allocated under proportional representation for 75 out of 150 seats: The United National Movement (59.48%), United Opposition (National Council, New Rights) (17.69%), Political Union "Giorgi Targamadze - Christian-Democrats" (8.26 %) and political party "Shalva Natelashvili - the Labour party of Georgia" (7.55 %). These results are consistent with the interim results made public on May 22nd, pronouncing Saakashvili’s United National Movement the winner.

According to the majoritarian single constituency election results for the remaining 75 (out of 150) seats in parliament, 71 were won by the United National Movement, 2 seats were won by the candidates presented by the United Opposition and another 2 by the Republician party.

Overall, these results in the majoritarian contest, combined with the ruling party’s landslide victory in the proportional party-list contest, mean that the National Movement may have at least 120 out of 150 seats in the new parliament, which is more than enough to form the constitutional majority, for which at least two-thirds of seats is needed.

The District Commissions, the CEC and the courts are currently examining various complaints that they have received and the outcome of these investigations may impact the distribution of seats under the majoritarian system.

On 22 May, when the first results came in, the International Election Observation Mission of the OSCE released a preliminary statement on the conduct of the parliamentary elections of 21 May. The observers noted that voters were offered a wide array of choices to select their representatives. The legal framework was generally conducive to the conduct of democratic elections, although remaining inconsistencies negatively affected its implementation. After failed talks, the government unilaterally changed the election system shortly before the elections in a manner seen by the opposition as favouring the ruling party. Parties were able to campaign actively, but there were numerous allegations of intimidation, some of which could be verified. The distinction between state activities and the government party's campaign was often blurred. The media, in particular public TV, offered voters a diverse range of views. The election administration worked in a transparent manner, but election commissions and courts generally did not give due consideration to complaints. Election day was overall calm and generally assessed positively, although problems with inking and instances of pressure on observers and proxies were noted. Counting and tabulation was evaluated less positively, with many significant procedural shortcomings observed.

On the same day the opposition stated that the elections were held in “intimidation, pressure and violence” exerted by the authorities, and called for an opposition rally to protest the election results. The rally was held on 26 May, coinciding with the Independence Day military parade. Initially, a police cordon was set up blocking the city’s main thoroughfare. However, it was removed shortly after the military parade on Rustaveli Avenue was over. It finished after as little as 40 minutes, as the marching opposition supporters approached Rustaveli Avenue. The protest rally was aired live by the Tbilisi-based Kavkasia TV.

Sources:

www.civil.ge Georgian news website

http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/05/31268_en.pdf OSCE report

http://cec.gov.ge/?que=eng/elections-2008/home Central Election Committee of Georgia