President Saakashvili ruled out again possibility of early elections and said the authorities would not yield to “pressure from the streets.”
Saakashvili was speaking while meeting with Avtandil Demetrashvili, who is slated to become chair of the commission on constitutional reform, in a newly built Interior Ministry’s building in the suburb of Tbilisi on June 4.
In remarks aired by the television stations Saakashvili said that Georgia should have the constitution “relevant to the Georgian reality and with democratic and European spirit.”
“Of course we need a strong parliament, of course we need an effective president and of course we need independent judiciary and of course people’s control over these [branches],” Saakashvili said.
“We all know very well that the people’s control is exercised through periodic elections and periodic elections mean that they are not held once or twice in every year as some want it to be.”
“In the current situation general early elections are totally unacceptable in the light of the economic situation and also in the view that the country has already had several [early presidential and parliamentary] elections last year,” he added. “Everyone has seen that the government will not take decisions upon the pressure from the streets. But on the other hand dialogue and taking into consideration the society’s interests is very important in order to achieve civil peace and unity.”
He also said that he would personally guarantee that “there will be no interference or political pressure” on the commission.
Avtandil Demetrashvili, who is a former chairman of the Constitutional Court, said it was not an easy decision for him to accept the chairmanship of the commission in the view of the current “political tensions.”
Demetrashvili said recently that he was in favor of a two-chamber parliament in the new constitutional model and for “separation of the president from the government with the role of an arbiter.”
He told journalists after the meeting with President that the issue of two-chamber parliament was raised and that the President said the idea was worth of being considered.
Most of the opposition parties have rejected to take part in the work of the commission.