Proposed Constitutional Changes Cast Controversy
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| Many observers fear that after proposed reforms, the judiciary will further become dependent on the executive authorities. |
If approved by the Parliament, the proposed constitutional amendments will change the rule of composition of the nine-member Constitutional Court.
According to the current rule, the President, the Parliament and the Supreme Court each appoint three members of the Constitutional Court. Every judge of the Constitutional Court serves a 10-year term without the right to be nominated to the same position a second time.
The newly proposed rule gives the President the right to nominate all nine members of the Constitutional Court for approval by the Parliament.
“The President [Mikheil Saakashvili] is leader of the political party [National Movement] which has the absolute majority of seats in the Parliament; hence, the Parliament will approve the nominees proposed by him [the President] without any problems. This means that the Constitutional Court may express the interests of only one political force,” former MP Vakhtang Khmaladze, who is a co-author of the Georgian Constitution, told Civil Georgia.
He also criticizes the new rule’s provisions, which enables judges of the Constitutional Court to be nominated for a second time after serving an initial ten-year term. “When a judge has a temptation to be appointed for a second term, the quality of his impartiality will decrease in favor of the political force which defines his career,” Vakhtang Khmaladze said.
According to the draft amendments, the Parliament will have the right to impeach judges of the Constitutional Court, while according to the current rule, only Constitutional Court members themselves can impeach judges. “It means that the authorities will be able to sack an ‘undesirable’ judge,” opposition MP Koba Davitashvili told Civil Georgia.
Vakhtang Khmaladze thinks that the proposed constitutional amendments will significantly reduce the independence of the Constitutional Court. “The fact that the Parliament can impeach judges of the Constitutional Court can easily be used as a lever for political pressure,” he said.
Age qualifications for a judge will also be reduced, from 35 to 30, according to the proposal.
In the event of approval of the proposed constitutional amendments, the judges of Supreme and Constitutional Court will all be forced to resign, so that the President can submit new candidacies for these positions. However, this provision will not apply to the current Chairman of the Supreme Court Kote Kemularia, according to the proposed constitutional changes. Kote Kemularia, a close ally of President Saakashvili, was approved for this position last June.
This new package of constitutional changes also involves reducing the number of MPs, from the current 235 to 150. If the amendment is approved, this provision will be enforced from 2008, when the new Parliament is convened.
Georgian voters endorsed a proposal to reduce the number of the parliamentarians at a referendum, which was held on November 2, 2003.