Georgia’s Electoral Transformation: Landmark Elections Under New Rules
Georgia approaches critical parliamentary elections with a new electoral system that will shape the country’s future. Recognizing the importance of the moment, IRI has deployed an election observation mission to support free and fair elections.
On October 26, Georgia will hold its 10th parliamentary elections since its independence from the Soviet Union. After a tumultuous, years-long effort to reform the electoral system, the rules have again changed. For the first time in the country’s history, all 150 seats of the nation’s unicameral legislature will be elected under a fully proportional system. This means all seats will be awarded based on the total percentage of votes a party receives in a single, nation-wide election. Coupled with a five percent electoral threshold parties must cross to win seats and a ban on political blocs, these changes will influence the behavior and activities of voters and political parties. It remains to be seen whether smaller opposition parties will meaningfully increase their representation in Parliament or if the institution will remain controlled by the current ruling party, Georgian Dream (GD).
To support a free and fair electoral process, the International Republican Institute (IRI) has launched a long-term election observation mission for the upcoming elections. An international team of 20 observers and a mission director deployed across ten regions of Georgia to assess the pre-electoral environment, meet with electoral stakeholders, political parties and civil society organizations, and analyze the effects of the new electoral system. A short-term observation team will oversee the election-day proceedings to support and report on its credibility, legitimacy, and transparency.
These crucial elections require the presence of unbiased third-party observers to help ensure the will of the Georgian people is heard. Georgia received its long-awaited EU candidacy status in December 2023 with the European Commission (EC) outlining nine steps for accession negotiations, one being free and fair elections. According to IRI’s most recent polling, 86% of Georgian citizens support Georgia joining the EU. By providing oversight of the electoral process, IRI will support the Georgian people’s longstanding ambition for EU integration and assess whether the country has met its commitments under the EC’s nine conditions to reach accession negotiations.
For more than 30 years Georgia used a mixed-voting system for parliamentary elections. Roughly half of the seats were assigned to winners of single-mandate district elections with the remaining half assigned proportionally among parties. This system, however, caused concern for enabling parties to win more seats than warranted by their popular support. In 2016 GD received less than 50% of the total vote but won 115 seats out of 150—a parliamentary supermajority. GD’s control over Parliament was achieved, in part, by winning 71 of 73 total single-district elections.
The following year, GD pushed for constitutional reforms adopting a fully proportional system in 2024, but domestic pressure compelled the government to accelerate its timeline. Calls for electoral reform intensified after the highly contested 2018 presidential election and boiled over in June 2019 after a visiting Russian parliamentarian’s speech in Georgia’s Parliament sparked large-scale public protests, memorialized as “Gavrilov Night.” In response, GD Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili proposed fully proportional 2020 parliamentary elections.
When put to a vote in November 2019, however, the measure failed. Protests renewed and the government, under Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, entered negotiations with the opposition. Ultimately, the “March 8th Agreement” shrunk the number of single-mandate districts from 73 to 30 and instituted a one percent electoral threshold for the 2020 parliamentary elections. Opposition parties ultimately boycotted Parliament after the elections, sparking a new round of negotiations.
Since then, GD and opposition parties have struggled to agree on the specifics of the 2024 election format. The EU-mediated “April 19th Agreement” in 2021 failed to generate lasting consensus among major parties. Later, then-GD Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze pledged to reduce the electoral threshold to two percent, contingent on receiving EU candidate status in December 2022. Kobakhidze dismissed the deal as outdated after Georgia received candidacy status a year later, despite calls from opposition parties to honor the agreement.
With less than three months until the elections, the rules are set and a defining moment for Georgia approaches. Regardless of the outcome, IRI remains committed towards supporting the Georgian people’s overwhelming desire to pursue EU integration by evaluating the freeness and fairness of the elections, driving civic and voter participation, and fostering constituent-responsive governance. The opportunity rests with the Georgian people to affirm their desire to join the EU as a free, democratic state.
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