“Another play has been put up in the parliamentary circus”, the Akhali Taoba’s being cynical. The parliamentary opposition astonished everyone and initiated a new game yesterday. It boycotted an extraordinary session once again. “Argument why they had left the session looked quite absurd actually”, the Dilis Gazeti states.
Badri Khatidze, head of the Regional Office in the State Chancellery, introduced a bill on self-governance, which had been agreed with each side (the opposition, the parliamentary majority, and the President). “Looking at the introduced bill it could have been said that the parliamentary majority had completely compromised”, the Dilis Gazeti claims. According to the bill, all the city mayors (except Tbilisi and Poti) are elected through direct system of elections; regional governors are selected from councils and appointed by the President.
The opposition and the ruling party reached consession on everything once again at a special bureau session held later on. But the opposition played a trick exactly in half an hour after the consensus and did not appear at the plenary session. The ultimatum of the opposition was to discuss the issue on completing electoral commissions before passing the law on self-governance.
“We are thankful for this compromise, now we want another…” – the parliamentary opposition told Zurab Zhvania, head of the parliament, and threatened him with boycott in case of refusal. None of the opposition members entered the plenary session afterwards”, the Resonance tells.
“The opposition is out of reasons for being absent at sessions and announced boycott without any actual reason this time”, the Dilis Gazeti states. “It is a shame when the supreme legislative board has not reached final consensus on at least one bill”, the Akhali Taoba assumes.
The parliamentary majority, being upset on the opposition’s ultimatum, balloted for another version of the bill and passed it with one hearing (the bill should go through three hearings in order to be finally passed). The bill is a remade version of the one suggested by the President earlier. According to the bill, governors in villages and towns are elected through majorette system of elections. Regional councils are completed through associated system that means heads of village councils are accepted there. The President selects regional governors from the councils. Correction was made with the initiative of the head of the parliament, which is about electing mayors and governors in large cities (the issue of Tbilisi is a completely another matter).
It is clear that the opposition was trying to arrange two issues profitable for it at the same time but it actually failed to do both of them.