Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the five percent election threshold would remain “unchanged” for next year’s parliamentary elections, amid demands by domestic opposition groups to decrease it to two percent.
The threshold topic was raised following the positive recommendation of the European Commission to the European Council on Wednesday to grant Georgia the European Union membership candidate status in December, with conditions outlined for the country to meet for opening accession negotiations as a next step on the integration process.
One of the conditions requires the Government to ensure “fair and competitive” elections in 2024 and completion of the electoral reform that would provide an “adequate representation of voters” in the legislative body. A part of the Georgian opposition has interpreted the section as a call for the Government to lower the threshold.
In his comments, Kaladze said the forthcoming elections would “definitely be conducted in a fair and competitive environment similar to all elections since 2012”, and stressed if the parties had “no expectations” they would overcome the five percent threshold, then they “should not have any [political] pretensions”.
Reacting to claims by President Salome Zourabichvili and opposition members on the possibility of a coalition government being formed following the 2024 elections, Kaladze said the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition was “far from the reality” and had “no public support”.
He further claimed the ruling power was expected to receive the constitutional majority of at least 100 seats in the 150-member Parliament in the race.
Commenting on the latest election polls by the United States-based Edison Research company last week, commissioned by the Georgian-based opposition-leaning Formula TV channel, Kaladze claimed the opposition was engaged in “deliberate fabrication” of such surveys since 2012, when GD took office.
The survey showed 37 percent of voters would vote for GD in the 2024 elections, with an alliance of the United National Movement and Strategy Agmashenebeli parties coming second with 21 percent.
