Twelve lawmakers, including those from the Christian-Democratic Party, as well as some elected on the opposition parties’ joint ticket, announced the establishment of a parliamentary faction on June 27.

The faction unites six lawmakers from the Christian-Democratic Party; as well as MP Paata Davitaia; MP Dimitri Lortkipanidze; MP Gia Tortladze and MP Gia Tsagareishvili – all four elected on the opposition coalition’s joint ticket.

Two other members of the new faction are MP Roman Marsagishvili and MP Karlo Kopaliani - both majoritarian MPs, who were nominated to run in the Kazbegi and Tsageri single-mandate constituencies by the Republican Party – neither of them, however, are formally members of the Republican Party.

MP Gia Tortladze will be the chairman of the faction.

MP Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of the Christian-Democratic Party, will apparently become the chairman of the parliamentary minority, which will be formed based on the new faction.

Both the formal faction and parliamentary minority give certain political privileges to its members - including the right to vote in the parliament’s bureau (the body which determines the parliamentary sessions’ schedule), guaranteed seats in committees, investigation commissions and parliamentary delegations.

Currently, a minimum of seven lawmakers are needed to set up a faction. The ruling party, however, has pledged to endorse constitutional amendments to decrease the threshold to six. If done, the Christian-Democratic Party, which has six lawmakers in Parliament, could form a separate faction.

The new faction will the third in the parliament, with two others formed by ruling party MPs.