U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan thinks “some don’t seem to understand that a democracy requires a plurality of views, one person, one party ruling, everything works against that.” She says “in fact, that risks the tyranny of the majority.”

According to Ambassador Degnan, “all of Georgia’s political leaders agreed that a lower threshold was a positive thing during the negotiations for electoral reform. And also, it was agreed in the April 19th agreement. It was also one of the positive outcomes of the October 2020 parliamentary elections, that the lower threshold allowed nine very diverse parties to enter parliament.”

“If the current 5% threshold is retained, it’s likely that two, maybe three political parties would make it across the threshold in the next elections. That’s not the trajectory that would allow greater diversity, greater plurality in the parliament that would allow more Georgian views perspectives to be represented in parliament, which is what I think, what I know, all Georgia’s political leaders agreed was a positive thing. It is also what international experts have recommended for Georgia. So, I think it would be unfortunate if something that all the political parties, including the ruling party, agreed was positive for Georgia, is not followed through on,” she asserted.