US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan responded to the comment of the Chair of Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze dismissing Degnan’s prior concern on adverse impact of 5 versus 2% threshold for political pluralism in Georgia. “I am an expert of constitutional law and Mrs. Degnan isn’t,” Kobakhidze said.
In this regard, Ambassador Degnan responded.
“Of course, I have great respect for Mr. Kobakhidze’s knowledge and experience in the constitutional law, as I do with many constitutional experts that I may had the pleasure of meeting with here in Georgia. This country is really blessed with many well educated and well-informed constitutional law specialists. As it turns out I too have a background in constitutional law, including helping a country write its constitution. This involved comparative analysis of many different constitutions and political systems. Comparing what is worth well in one system to another, is very important and useful. In the end, each country needs to decide what is best for its system. Georgia’s leaders spent great deal of time debating and discussing the question of what is right for Georgia. That was one of the reasons why there was 1 percent threshold in the October 2020 parliamentary elections. I think all of the parties’ leaders, including the ruling party, agreed that it was quite a positive outcome that that low threshold produced 9 very diverse parties in parliament. For that reason, after the parliamentary elections, when the political leaders discussed that issue again, they agreed that 2 percent threshold and fully proportional elections were the right thing for Georgia and in Georgia’s best interest at this time in its democratic development. While many people expected the fully proportional elections to take effect in 2019, they are now in the constitution and this 2 percent threshold is designed to continue to bring in multiparty system that will allow more diversity in the parliament and more Georgian voices and views to be represented in parliament. That is very important – that was the agreement of Georgia’s political leaders, for what is in Georgia’s best interest at this time.”
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