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| Leaders compromise over constitutional changes. |
“It is not ideal, but batter than the initial draft,” Nino Burjanadze said after the consultations on February 2.
The details of the final version of the draft are not known yet. The authorities talk only regarding the main principles of the constitutional changes, which envisage the reforms of the governance system in the country.
It is anticipated that the presentation of the draft will be held on February 4, when President Saakashvili’s National Movement and State Minister Zhvania’s United Democrats hold the founding congress of the united party.
According to the final version of the Prime Minister post will be introduced, who will be responsible for the activity of the cabinet of ministers. The President will be the head of the executive government. Three – defense, interior and security – ministers will be under the direct control of the President.
The President will have right to dissolve the Parliament, or dismiss the cabinet, in case the legislative body fails for three times to pass the state budget. On the other hand the Parliament will have the right to dismiss the Prime Minister and the cabinet with the three fifth of votes. It means that 141 votes of 235-seat Parliament will be needed to initiate non-confidence vote.
After the consultations President Saakashvili said that the methods to dissolve the Parliament are very difficult to enforce and “this will happen only in case of extreme political crisis.”
“The president will be distanced from the cabinet’s everyday activity. The Prime Minister and each of the cabinet members will be responsible for the everyday activity and if something will go wrong the President will dismiss the Prime Minister, as well as the entire cabinet,” President Saakashvili told reporters on February 2.
State Minister Zurab Zhvania told reporters that as a result of the constitutional changes the Parliament “will be much stronger than in any European nations.”
In an interview to the Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 television on February 2, Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said that the final draft of the constitutional amendments is the reflection of the country’s post-revolution situation.
“I know that the draft, which we have now, is not ideal one, but we should take into consideration the fact that we live in the post-revolution situation and the constitutional amendment of course would reflect this circumstance. I think that the new constitution will be for the transitional period, particularly for some five, or seven years. After this period I hope we will be ready to adopt a constitution for a longer term period,” Nino Burjanadze said.
In January Burjanadze warned her allies that she does not “see herself in the weak Parliament.” This statement sparked the speculations over the disagreement between the three leaders, which united in November on the wave of the anti-Shevardnadze movement that led to bloodless revolution.
Burjanadze admits that the consultations were hard and there were disagreements. “I tried to secure more power for the legislative body,” Burjanadze said.
“Of course if we want to have a Prime Minister and the cabinet is naturally means that the executive government would have a right to dissolve the legislative body. But I tried to minimize the possibility of this with making the dissolving procedures more difficult,” she said.
Despite the compromise among the three leaders, that made it possible to keep their unity, there are some controversial proposals, which cast doubts of the legal experts.
“In many cases the responsibility of the President and the Prime Minister are not separated vividly. At the same time according to these amendments we will have much weaker Parliament than we have it now and the situation is not as the authorities try to demonstrate,” influential legal expert Davit Usupashvili, who participated in the meeting of the Constitutional Council on February 2 to discuss the amendments, said.
He also said that the government intends to propose amendments this week, thus the dates of publication of the draft for public discussions, envisaged by the constitution are violated. “I do not think that it is appropriate for the government, which came into power in the name of defending constitutional rights of citizens,” Davit Usupashvili added.
Political parties, which are in the opposition to the current government, also express protest regarding the methods of adoption of the constitutional changes. “Quick decision over such an important issues are inadmissible. We preferred discussions over the constitution in the new Parliament [elected on March 28 elections],” Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights opposition party says.
