FOUR YEARS LATER NO ARMENIAN WILL BE PRESENT IN THE GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT

The reform of electoral system being prepared allows it.

It seems that the forecasts that the influence of the Armenian community of Georgia on the political processes taking place in the country will decrease, are being fulfilled. The results of the parliamentary elections taken place Sunday come to prove it. It is evident that the new Parliament will have less Armenians than the old one. In the next one there may be no Armenian.

November 4, 2003

PanARMENIAN.Net - For the moment there are three Armenians that have received a mandate. In the Akhalkalaki region where the 90 percent of the population is Armenian, succeeded Hamlet Shahbekyan supported by the pro-governmental block "For a New Georgia". He gained more votes than his 4 colleagues. In the Ninotsminda district which is also mono-national, the businessmen Genzel Mkoyan won. The success of Hayk Melkonyan in the Tsalki region was also predictable. He got twice more votes that the Georgian candidate. The Armenians- candidates from electoral districts of Akhaltsikha, Marneuli and Borjomi regions lost, as expected.

The Armenians presented by proportional system have very little perspective to gain mandates. The party of the authorities gained about 22 percent of votes and can count on 30-35 mandates. If the block headed President manages to form the government independently, and the persons in the list occupy the posts of Ministers, the 2 Armenians in the list may hope to gain mandates.

So, there may be 4-5 Armenian deputies in the Georgian parliament. However, it is not excluded that four years later there will be no Armenian in the Georgian Parliament because the Georgian citizens approved in the referendum the initiative supposing an essential reduction of the number of deputy mandates. From now on there will be 235 and not 150 deputies in the parliament both from majority and from proportional systems. It means that the electoral districts will be formed again. In that case Tbilisi may divide the Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki regions between two different electoral districts. As a result, in both of them the number of Armenian population may be less than 50 percents and the Armenians may be deprived of the possibility to have at least one representative in the Parliament.

This is the worst scenario. We would like to hope that the forces that will come to the power as a result of the upcoming presidential elections will not do it. However, it is evident that the voice of the Akhaltsikhi, Tsalkhi and Marneuli Armenians may not be heard any more. As a result of the reform, tens of thousands of our compatriots will be deprived of real mechanisms of influencing the elections. In the new conditions the Georgian political elite will not be obliged to take them into account.