Georgia not to increase parliamentary seats

Georgian lawmakers on Monday agreed not to increase the number of parliamentary seats as proposed by the ruling majority, chief of the parliamentary legal issues committee said on Monday. Pavle Kublashvili, chairperson of the Legal Issues Committee under the Georgian Parliament, told local media that the lawmakers had agreed after Monday's consultation as to whether to increase the number of parliamentary seats from 150 to 190. The consultation decided to modify the ratio of elected seats and proportional representation seats.Pavle Kublashvili said that the single-constituency MPs would be 73 instead of 75 while the proportionally-elected MPs would be 77 instead of 75. The ratio modification will guarantee any party or election bloc of parties surpassing the 5-percent threshold six seats in the next parliament which requires at least six MPs to form a parliamentary faction. Monday's consultation was held in between Speaker David Bakradze and leaders of political parties as well as representatives of the parliamentary majority and minority. The lawmakers also agreed to modify the definition of constitutional majority. They agreed that three quarters would be enough for making a constitutional majority instead of the hitherto required majority of two thirds of the legislators. Apart from the ruling United National Movement, the New Rights party, the Industry Will Save Georgia party, the Christian- Democratic Movement party, the European Democrats party, and the Democratic Georgia party also took part in the consultation on Monday.Georgia is scheduled to hold its next parliamentary elections in Oct. next year. The ruling United National Movement party now occupies 119 of the 150 parliamentary seats. There are three opposition parties which had passed the 5-percent barrier in the last parliamentary elections to get into the legislation. These opposition parties are the Christian Democratic Movement party (six seats), Labor Party (six seats) and Republican Party of Georgia (two seats). Seventeen seats are scattered among leaders of other opposition parties which grouped to form an election alliance in May, 2008.