The organization “Young Barristers” responds to the discussion regarding the possible cancelation of a majoritarian system, currently operating within the electoral legislation of Georgia. The organization calls the authors of the legislative proposal for expressing high legal and political responsibility, taking into consideration the national interests of the country.
According to the lawyer of the “Young Barristers”, Ana Kiknadze, cancelation of the majoritarian electoral system, may result in ignoring interests of the local population, contradicts with the principles of true decentralization and undermines development of the municipal policy and the local political elite. According to the evaluation, offered by the organization, a majoritarian electoral system should not be canceled, until the sufficient justification of the reform is not provided and it should also be taken into consideration, that the territorial integrity of the State is violated. According to the Constitution of Georgia, “ After the creation of appropriate conditions and formation of the bodies of local self-government throughout the territory of Georgia, two chambers shall be set up within the Parliament of Georgia: the Council of Republic and the Senate”. Accordingly, it is important, that future reform of the electoral system complied with constitutional provisions of the country.
According to the “Young Barristers’, electoral reform should not become the part of the political agreements, including possible secret deals. Although the majoritarian electoral system has certain disadvantages, like any other electoral systems, yet, it is much more advantageous and useful for the population, compared with the regional proportional system, offered by initiators. If the legislative proposal acquires legal form, 64 Municipalities are going to be left without personalized representation in the parliament, electoral districts will be enlarged. For instance, we are going to have Majoritarian MPs from Imereti (the whole region), instead of Samtredia, Kutaisi and etc…such changes for the moment, represent significant risk and is quite dangerous for the County.
According to the ”Young Barristers“ , in some cases, connections between majoritarian MPs and the voters, is violated, reflected in the less communication with the electorate, while the majoritarian MPs are legally obliged to meet population, identify their problems and adequately respond to them. In order to solve the problem and promote effectiveness of the majoritarian system itself, additional legal regulations should be adopted, specifying the duties and rights of the majoritarian MPs, their role in the local decision making, issues of their cooperation with the local self-government, and etc… According to the current legislation, the duties and obligations of the majoritarian MPs are quite vague. The law on the “Status of Member of Parliament” is not enough and do not completely meet the practical requirements. Therefore, the deficiencies of existing electoral legislation should be improved, instead of cancelation of the majoritarian representation.
For more information, Georgia is among the countries, having so called mixed electoral system, where proportional and majoritarian electoral systems coexist side by side. In particular, the Parliament of Georgia consists of 77 members , elected by a proportional system and 73 members, elected by a majority system.
