The FINANCIAL — The President of Georgia, H.E. Giorgi Margvelashvili has presented the newly developed project of constitutional amendments, drafted in cooperation with the opposition, to non-governmental organizations. The document has been publicly disclosed and sent to the Parliament and the Venice Commission on September 20.
From the President’s team, the meeting with non-governmental organizations has also been attended by the Head of the Administration Mr. Giorgi Abashishvili, Political Secretary Ms. Pikria Chikhradze, Advisor in Human Rights and Justice Issues Mr. Kakha Kozhoridze and Parliamentary Secretary Ms. Ana Dolidze. President Margvelashvili has spoken about the basic principles of the document and expressed hope that the ruling party will follow the example of the opposition and compromise, in order to reach the ultimate agreement among political parties, according to the Administration of the President of Georgia.
As President Margvelashvili stated, the document has been based on the existing draft of the Constitution, developed by the “Georgian Dream”. Agreement has been reached and common position has been developed on the following topics: prompt introduction of proportional electoral system (fair distribution of mandates), retention of the direct presidential election rule, dropping the electoral threshold to 3%, keeping electoral blocs, maintaining the National Security Council as a constitutional body, better organizing the country’s defense capabilities and security, strengthening parliamentary supervision, and reinforcement of judiciary’s independence.
According to President Margvelashvili, the document of agreement, which includes visions of both, the “Georgian Dream” and the united political spectrum on the constitutional arrangement has been developed as a result of the consultation process.
“I hope that the ruling party will realize that we cannot reach a consensus by force. Importantly, a cliché as if diverse political parties in Georgia will never be able to sit at the same table and if they will, they cannot develop anything new, is destroyed in the eyes of the international community as well as in our own assessment.
I am glad that we came to this common vision and once again I hope that the motivation to consent will overcome the rigidity that the ruling party is characterized of; the ruling party which holds remote controls in electronic voting, which has constitutional mandates, which does not consider past experience, and does not realize that forceful adoption of any document is unacceptable for the Georgian society,” stated President Margvelashvili.
According to the President, radically different Georgian political parties have shown an example of consensus to the ruling party in a very difficult political situation, in the pre-election period. He hopes that the ruling party will follow their example.
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