The day before the special session in the Parliament neither the parliamentary majority nor the minority knows exactly which draft on self-governance the President will propose to the Parliament for debates. The Citizens’ Union presumes that Shevardnadze will suggest the initial project, according to which governors are appointed directly by the President. The opposition, on the other hand, supposes that the agreement reached with Badri Khatidze, head of the President’s Regional Office, will be taken into account. That means that according to the bill, the President will appoint governors from the City Council members elected through proportional system of election or, in a better case, governors will be elected by the city council itself.
Debates over the project on Cabinet of Ministers have been delayed till September. The parliamentary majority and the opposition are now having a bargain on special session concerning the bill on self-governance and the electoral law.
The faction “Traditionalist” has actually made the united opposition collapse. It decided to share the position of Zurab Zhvania (Head of the Parliament, “the Citizens’ Union”): Akaki Asatiani (leader of the faction “Traditionalist”) supports the idea of appointing mayors and governors and supposes that this is the right way of implementing regionalism in Georgia. “I recommend the opposition to support the initial version of the bill, which is about an associated city council, appointed governors and putting regionalism into practice in a year and a half”, Akaki Asatiani told the Akhali Taoba.
At the same time the Traditionalists agree with “the Citizens’ Union” on the idea of the electoral law and the way of completing electoral commissions with representatives of non-governmental organizations (the Resonance).
The Akhali Taoba; The Resonance