|
Georgia The 1990 Election
The 1990 parliamentary election was a struggle between what
remained of the Georgian Communist Party, which still held power
at that point, and thirty-one opposition parties constituting the
Georgian national movement. The national movement was not
completely represented in the official election, however, because
many opposition parties organized separate elections to an
alternative body called the Georgian National Congress. An
important factor in the results was a provision in the election
law that forbade members of the communist party to run
simultaneously on the ticket of another party. (By contrast, in
this interim period other Soviet republics allowed even
proponents of radical reform to retain their communist party
memberships while representing popular fronts and similar
organizations.)
The election decisively rejected the communists and gave a
resounding popular mandate to the Round Table/Free Georgia bloc
that Gamsakhurdia headed. That coalition captured 54 percent of
the proportional vote to gain 155 seats out of the 250 up for
election, while the communists gained 64 seats and 30 percent of
the proportional vote. Communist strongholds remained in
Azerbaijani and Armenian districts of southern Georgia. No other
party reached the 4 percent share necessary for representation in
the party-list system, and only a handful of candidates from
other parties won victories in the individual district races.
Boycotts prevented voting in two districts of Abkhazia and in two
districts of South Ossetia.
Gamsakhurdia raised initial hopes for compromise in his new
government by withdrawing Round Table/Free Georgia candidacies
from runoffs against the opposition Popular Front Party in twelve
races. That move ensured the election of Popular Front candidates
as individuals in those contests; otherwise, the 4 percent rule
would have precluded representation for the Popular Front.
Data as of March 1994
|
