President’s Administration Boycotts Planned Constitutional Reform Commission

The Georgian President will refrain from participating in the work of the planned state constitutional commission, because the format offered by the Parliament “obviously lacks political trust and political legitimization,” chief of president’s administration, Giorgi Abashishvili said.

He said at a news briefing on December 12 that the President’s administration “deemed important ensuring maximum political trust and consensus”, but the format offered by the Parliamentary Chairman “raises a lot of question marks.”      

“The offered draft resolution clearly lacks political trust and political legitimization and is not oriented to achieving broad consensus. Moreover, it focuses on making unilateral and one-party decisions,” he said.

“Therefore, the President of Georgia and the President’s representatives will refrain from participating in the work of the constitutional commission,” Abashishvili said.

The chief of president’s administration explained that in the situation, when the format of setting up the constitutional commission is not regulated by law, the President wanted the commission to be co-chaired by him, Prime Minister and Parliamentary Chairman, but the ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party rejected this proposal. 

The planned commission will be chaired by Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, according to the draft resolution, which will apparently be put on vote in the Parliament this week. 

According to the draft resolution on setting up the state constitutional commission, which was officially initiated at the session of the parliamentary bureau on December 12, the President’s administration will have two members in the commission and the Secretary of the National Security Council will also be represented in the commission as a member.

The commission, which will elaborate package of constitutional amendments till April 30, 2017 will also involve: two representatives of the government; chairpersons of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court; heads of legislative and executive bodies of Adjara and Abkhaz Autonomous Republics; Georgian Public Defender; President of the National Bank; chairperson of the State Audit Office; experts and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

The ruling GDDG party will have 23 members in the commission; UNM party – 6 members and Alliance of Patriots – 1 member; the commission will also involve one representative from each of those parties and number one parties in the blocs, who failed to clear threshold, but garnered at least 3% of votes. These non-parliamentary parties are: Free Democrats; Nino Burjanadze’s Democratic Movement; Paata Burchuladze’s State for People and Labor Party.

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