Ruling Party to Scuttle Special Parliament Session

MP Givi Mikanadze, deputy chair of the ruling Georgian Dream faction in the parliament, announced on July 18 that 81 MPs constituting the majority faction won’t show up for the special session of the Parliament convoked by President Salome Zurabishvili, thus scuttling the session due to the lack of quorum.

MP Mikanadze read out a letter addressed to Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili by the GD deputies and signed by ruling party Chairperson, Irakli Kobakhidze.

The letter declared that GD would not participate in a process “the [true] purpose of which neither to integrate into the European and Euro-Atlantic structures nor to fulfill the European Commission’s recommendations but to deepen polarization and sabotage the mentioned recommendations.”

The ruling party leadership also said the special session’s agenda “does not comply with the requirements of the Georgian Parliament’s regulations since they were not discussed by political entities during the committee hearings.”

The letter emphasized the ruling party has “actively started working” on EU recommendations “in accordance to the plan presented by Georgian Dream party Chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze.”

“Despite the fact that the consideration of the issue has been postponed to 2023, there will be no changes in this plan… the mentioned process will be brought to an end by December 2022 in accordance with the deadlines we announced,” the ruling party added, “as a result, we are not going to participate in the parallel, contrived, sabotaged, and unpromising process.”

Still the Georgian Dream called on the “radical opposition” not to exit the process and participate in the ongoing parliamentary working groups and committees as part of their “constitutional obligation.”

Speaker Backs his Party

Speaker Papuashvili also touched upon on the issue during a meeting of the Parliamentary Bureau today, and stated, echoing his party line that “due to the fact that the draft laws have not yet passed the committee hearings and the conclusions of the leading committees have not been presented on any of them, they, therefore, cannot be included in the agenda of the plenary session.”

He also criticized the opposition MPs for initiating the special session as a ploy to create false impression that the Parliament is not working on fulfilling the Commission’s recommendations. He said “the Parliament’s work continues” in commissions and committees and some opposition MPs participate, while the ones calling for calling for the special session are, in fact, boycotting the process.

Also Read:

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)