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Opposition, Governmental Factions Posed for the Major Battle

Parliament Deadlocked over Populist Vote

On March 14 the small, but well organized united opposition managed to defend the February 28 decision of the Parliament to increase the minimal salary to 115 Lari. Four-day debate on possible cancellation of the law became the major clinch between the pro-governmental “situational majority” and the opposition.

Experts say that the last week’s sessions revealed the most important tendency in the Parliament – President Eduard Shevardnadze does not have a firm bulwark in the supreme legislative body to guard his interests.

The February 28 decision to increase the minimal salary was a major success for the opposition and the United Democrats who pressed for this change of legislation as one of their main pre-election agendas. To avoid vetoing of the popular decision, President Shevardnadze tasked the pro-governmental factions of the parliament to achieve cancellation of the decision by the parliament itself.

Tactic of the majority was to argue that the decision was taken in violation of the procedural norms. They said, among other things, that the vice-speaker – pro-opposition Gigi Tsereteli who led the February 28 session – did have the written authorization of the Chairperson of the Parliament to chair the session. The Procedural Committee of the Parliament controlled by the pro-presidential majority upheld these claims. If the parliament would approve the Committee conclusion the law should have been annulled automatically.

During the heated four days of discussion the opposition has stuck with the weapon of the adversary and fought back by the procedural regulations. All legal ways, provided by the Parliament’s procedures, to delay voting for the draft law was used. The March 14 session ended at 1am of March 15, without any final decision.

While the opposition has managed to beat the majority in their own field, the final victory is still distant. President Shevardnadze has time till March 20 to veto the law, and he used the last chance to evade from this hard decision. “I convened the Parliamentary special session on March 18. I will not veto the draft law. Some forces in the Parliament want me to veto this draft law, thus trying to lay responsibility on President, this is a trick,” Eduard Shevardnadze said in his Monday radiobroadcast on March 17.

“The government and the President do not have any real arguments against this initiative [on increase of the minimal salary]. This is why Shevardnadze tries to block the decision of the Parliament with the Parliament’s hands,” Zurab Zhvania, leader of the United Democrats said on March 14.

Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, says she which found herself “under the pressure from both the opposition and pro-governmental factions”, but agrees that presidential veto would be the way out from the Parliamentary standstill. “I do not understand why the President refrains from using the right of veto, thus leading the Parliament into the deadlock,” she said on March 14.

The initiative of the United Democrats to increase the minimal salary to the minimum subsistence level, which has topped the Georgian political agenda for the last four month, considers increase of the salaries of the public servicemen to 115 Lari from July 1, 2003. For this, the government will have to reallocate 116 million Lari in this year’s budget, which seems to be almost impossible, as the budget fell short of 40 million Lari in revenues in the first quarter of the year.

The United Democrats have been repeating that the government would probably fail to comply with the initiative.

“That is why we are ready for the compromise. It is not necessary to increase the salary to 115 on July 1. We would agree to increase it in autumn and gradually, by 50-60 Lari,” said Giorgi Baramidze, chairman of the United Democrats faction. But the pro-governmental factions, led by the Citizens Union chairman Vitali Khazaradze, remain committed to all-out victory.

Experts say that the four days long debates on the United Democrats’ initiative on March 11-14 revealed very interesting trends in the Parliament. The whole parliamentary opposition has united on a single issue against the government. But nevertheless, many experts are skeptical about the future of this unity.

“Unity of the opposition was a temporary event, I think. Tomorrow, their ties will not be so strong on any other issue,” legal expert David Usupashvili told Civil Georgia.

Experts believe that such unity around the United Democrats was commanded by the popularity of their initiative. Nobody in the opposition would have dared to go against increase of the salaries on the eve of the Parliamentary elections.

But while the opposition unity may have been natural, the observers say the recent debates showed intrinsic weakness of the pro-presidential factions. It is becoming apparent that the President does not have a strong support in the Parliament – pro-governmental factions are not disciplined and have no strong and viable leader. Experts believe that struggle for leadership of the pro-governmental factions is just heating up, worsening their capacity to act.

“Several potential candidates, [Vitali] Khazaradze, [Vakhtang] Rcheulishvili [Socialist Party leader], are contesting for the leadership in these group [the majority]…But none of them is able to guide them or clearly designate roles and functions of the others and, I think further split within the group would continue,” Usupashvili says.

He says that the recent events in the Parliament proved that the President does not have a strong supporting force, like the Citizens Union – much well organized and predictable group, which has backed Shevardnadze for many years.

“It is quite likely that President used the recent events to test the Parliament, to see capabilities of the Parliamentary forces, because now he is looking for people who would be able to reach the designated goals. Shevardnadze is looking for such leaders, but so far, it seems, that he’s search is in vain,” says Usupashvili.

The special session of the parliament during the current week would make for a title fight between the pro-governmental forces. The parliament is weakened by absence of the seasoned Chairman Nino Burjanadze, who proved she could maintain neutrality and balance in a heat of the battle.

It is likely that the opposition would try to delay the vote on the contented law until March 20, forcing the Presidential veto. The fight is posed to be fierce and, at large, absurd.

By Giorgi Sepashvili, Civil Georgia

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