With 115 votes in favour and three against, the Georgian parliament has passed constitutional amendments on electoral change in the second reading today.

Lawmakers from the United National Movement and European Georgia were absent from the session.  European Georgia faction supported the constitutional bill in the first reading.

The Parliament of Georgia passed the constitutional amendments in the first reading on June 21.

Constitutional changes envisage holding the 2020 parliamentary elections under 120/30 model in Georgia – 120 seats in parliament will be distributed based on the votes received in proportional elections while remaining 30 per the votes received in majoritarian elections.

The amendments stipulate that proportional elections will be held with 1% threshold, and the threshold for electoral blocs will be determined by multiplying one percent by the number of parties within the bloc.

At the same time, based on changes it is impossible for a party or electoral bloc, which wins less than 40 percent of the votes to form a parliamentary majority and form a government single-handedly.

At the same time, the bill directly defines the boundaries of 30 single-member majoritarian constituencies, taking into account the current administrative boundaries. In addition, the draft will allow the party to participate in the 2020 elections, if it submits signatures of supporters in the amount of at least 5,000 voters.

The bill also stipulates that in case of early elections in the period up to 2024, the country will operate under the provisional electoral system established by the proposed constitutional bill.