Davit Zalkaliani, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, responds to the adoption of the constitutional amendments by the Parliament of Georgia on his official Twitter page.
"Adopting constitutional amendments is a crucial step taken by Georgia towards establishing itself as a European democracy," Zalkaliani writes.
According to the Minister, "Today's voting in Parliament is a step toward Georgia's EU&Euroatlantic integration."
In a Twitter post, Zalkaliani thanked the facilitator ambassadors. The Minister believes that the successful end of the political dialogue is due to the active involvement of the ambassadors.
The Parliament adopted constitutional amendments with 117 in favor and three against during the third hearing, regarding the move to a new electoral system.
Bidzina Gegidze and Kakha Okriashvili from the Georgian Dream and independent deputy Alexandre Erkvania, who left the majority a few months ago in protest, did not support the changes.
Opposition factions - the United National Movement and European Georgia, did not take part in the voting process. Opposition lawmakers said they would only support the changes if Giorgi Rurua were released.
A total of 113 votes were needed to pass the constitutional amendments.
According to the constitutional amendments, the 2020 parliamentary elections will occur under a mixed electoral system 120/30 and a 1% threshold.
The bill covers the so-called 40% shutdown mechanism, which means that a party that receives less than 40.54% support in the 2020 parliamentary elections under the proportional system will not be able to independently form a government.
