Constitutional amendments have been registered in the Parliament, envisaging lowering the election threshold. MPs Shalva Papuashvili and Levan Ioseliani held a briefing on the issue.

"Electoral reform and strengthening the role of the opposition in Parliament was one of the main issues of the recommendations and mediation of our European and American partners. The memorandum signed between the Georgian Dream and the Citizens addressed this issue. On March 2, as a result of a month-long work of the Working Group, we initiated a reform package that fundamentally changes the election procedures", - Shalva Papuashvili said, noting that the reform package reflects the views expressed in the Working Group.

"Today we are fulfilling the last condition of the memorandum and we are initiating the constitutional changes in two directions:

First, as you know, at the initiative of the Georgian Dream, the 2020 elections were held under a 1% threshold, as a result of which 9 election subjects received the seats.

That is why we are initiating the constitutional amendment, which will reduce the electoral threshold for the 2024 elections from 5% to 3%”, - Sh. Papuashvili remarked.

According to him, in the coming days the Steering Commission on Public Consideration and Promulgation of the Draft Constitutional Changes will be set up, within the framework of which, in accordance with the memorandum, the possibility of holding the 2024 elections with a lower threshold will be considered.

"The second change concerns the strengthening of parliamentary opposition. One of the most important tools for the opposition to effectively implement its mandate is the formation of a parliamentary faction.

According to the current regulation, 7 MPs are needed to form a faction. In order to strengthen the parliamentary opposition, we are anticipating a constitutional amendment that would reduce the number of members needed to form a faction from 7 to 4 in the 2020 and 2024 convocation Parliaments. This gives the parties that received less than 4% support the opportunity to form a total of 5 parliamentary factions and, consequently, to gain additional leverage to carry out legislative activities and control the government.

With this initiative, we are taking another step to encourage small parties to understand the scale and significance of these changes for the part of the opposition that has so far refused to implement its mandate for the democratic development of the country”, - Sh. Papuashvili remarked.

As he elucidated, these changes need the votes of 113 MPs. As of today, the mandate of a Member of Parliament is exercised by 96 deputies. Therefore, in order for these changes to take place, it is necessary for at least 17 MPs outside the parliament to understand their responsibility to their own voters and the country and participate in the democratic development of Georgia.

"These days we have all seen that cooperation within the walls of this building is the only right step that the Georgian people, our European family and our strategic partners expect from us", - Sh. Papuashvili added.

According to Levan Ioseliani, a member of parliament, this is the way to end polarization in the country.

"We will continue to implement the agreement within the framework of the memorandum. According to the memorandum, we had to initiate changes that would lower the 5% threshold for the 2024 parliamentary elections to at least 3% and leave room for this 3% threshold to be the subject of debate for those parties for whom it is still important. It is very important to involve all political entities in this process, for whom it is vital that we somehow end the polarization in this country and that all subsequent elections are not between two parties, but between multiple players. This is a task that we, the Citizens are trying to uphold. That is why we believe that there will be 17 people in the opposition who love this country and enter the parliament to approve these constitutional changes”, - L. Ioseliani stated.