Almost Total Absence of Ethnic Minorities in 2008 Georgian Parliament

Public Movement Multinational Georgia tried to identify whether representatives of ethnic minorities were given the opportunity to become MPs through proportional party lists. According to the polls carried out by the coalition of non-governmental organizations “For Transparent Elections”, on May 11-12 33.99% of the population support Election Bloc “United Opposition”, 31.56 % for the Ruling Party. Giorgi Targamadze’s party “Christian Democrats” takes the third place with 11.83%. Shalva Natelashvili’s Labor Party gained 9.29 %. Another 7.85 % of respondents expressed their preference to the Republican Party. As for the other political parties, they do not even approach the election barrier. Based on the polling results and according to the number of the representatives of ethnic minorities on the election lists, it is now evident that the composition of the future Georgian Parliament will have only two members from ethnic minorities. (Ethnic Azerbaijan and one Armenian) and they will be able to enter the parliament as they are counted on the list of the National Movement.

It is interesting how the regions where there are compacted settlements of ethnic minorities would react to where they will have little direct representation. It is come as  no surprise that these regions have traditionally played a crucial role the final outcomes of  elections held in Georgia.

Press-service of the Public Movement “Multinational Georgia”

List of ethnic minority representatives in the lists represented by elections subjects participating in the Parliamentary elections of 2008