Georgian President, Parliament Chairman at odds over constitutional reform

Georgian Parliament Chairman, Irakli Kobakhidze, has leveled criticism at county’s President, Giorgi Margvelashvili, for initiating nationwide debates on a draft new Constitution.

As Kobakhidze pointed out in a special statement, since March 10, Georgian President was going to launch meetings with public figures, representatives of political parties, diplomats and experts, with the aim to discuss the draft constitutional law.

“ By this initiative, Georgian president once again opposes himself to the Georgian parliament and the state constitutional commission and shows disrespect to the major constitutional democratic institution,” said Kobakhidze.. In particular, he noted that the first meeting, scheduled for March 10, is timed to coincide with the Parliament’s plenary session, and therefore 34 members of the constitutional commission won’t be able to participate in it.

The Parliament Chairman also reminded that under the Georgian legislation, organization of the nationwide debates on draft Constitution is a prerogative of Georgian Parliament. And those debates can be launched only upon submission of the bill on constitutional amendments to the Parliament. The bill is expected to be submitted to the Parliament only after 2 months.

Kobakhidze warned President Margvelashvili against ‘setting artificial barriers’ to the constitutional commission, calling on him to act within the legal framework.

Giorgi Abashidze, the Head of Georgian President’s Administration, responded to the Parliament Chairman’s statement.

“We stated about our intention to facilitate broader nationwide debates on constitutional issues as early as on December 12 last year…As far as this particular issue is concerned, Georgian President is facing yet another threat-President, who is a guarantor of the Constitution, is banned from discussing the constitutional issues. This issue doesn’t actually need any comments,” said Abashidze.

A few days ago, Georgian President, Giorgi Margvelashvili, publicly expressed discontent over the ruling party’s proposal to annul nationwide presidential election and vest the Parliament with a prerogative to elect the head of state, thus restricting the president’s powers. Georgian Parliament Chairman, in turn, stated that if Margvelashvili didn’t stop criticizing the majority’s constitutional initiatives, the Parliament would abolish nationwide presidential election already in 2018, instead of 2023, as it was initially planned.

The ruling Georgian Dream party voiced its intention to implement the constitutional reform immediately after winning October 2016 parliamentary election, as a result of which it, for the first time, gained the constitutional majority in parliament. The work on amendments to the country’s basic law is carried out within the Constitutional Commission framework.