Davit Bakradze, Parliamentary Chair in connection with the electoral code hold a press conference. Bakradze said all political parties should gather and to revise the question of MPs seat increase.
A relevant constitutional amendment on increasing number of MPs was initiated in early November; but on December 6 both the ruling party and lawmakers from CDM have indicated about the plans to reconsider whether to further push for the proposal or not; although citing different motives, it became clear that lawmakers from both the parliamentary majority and minority were reluctant towards increasing seats in the legislative body. Davit Bakradze, the parliamentary speaker, said on December 16, that consultations would be held between the ruling party and parliamentary minority lawmakers in order to discuss issues related to number of seats in the legislative body.
Bakradze said that for the last 2-3 weeks the declarations from opposition parties indicated that they no longer demand to increase the number of seats. ‘So, this question is not decided. We should decide asup will or will not the number of seats increase for the next year. I am calling all political parties to gather and to decide this question jointly. I will privately take part in discussions. If the political prtiess will agree to increase the number of seats this will be very good. But if this will not be the case, we should consider other mechanism which will give the opposition the chance for the stronger representation. "-he said.
"Last year a special interparty group was established, parties were working about 1 year. The question of elections environment improvement recommended by them was passed as a result of this work. The most part of these recommendations are already on the way of implementation. For instance the Elections List Commission is established. In the nearest future will be established the special group which will monitor violations at elections, such as the exploiting of the administrative resources."
