Burjanadze Offers Dialogue to Opposition

Georgian Parliamentary Chair Nino Burjanadze has said that the parliamentary majority is ready to launch “a constructive dialogue” with opposition lawmakers boycotting the parliamentary sessions.

Burjanadze said the parliamentary majority is ready to discuss the improvement of the election system and business environment with the opposition – which are among opposition MPs’ demands.

Thirty-six lawmakers from the New Rights, Industrialists and Democratic Front (which unites MPs from the Republican and Conservative parties) signed a memorandum saying that they refuse to attend the parliamentary session and parliamentary bureau sittings unless the authorities meet their demands, which include the resignation of Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, the creation of new election administrations by political parties on a parity basis and direct elections of city mayors and regional governors. The Industrialists faction also demanded the improvement of the business climate in the country.

“We should ensure those mechanisms that will secure free and fair elections… I also find quite important the demands voiced by the Industrialists party regarding the improvement of the tax code and customs code, improvement of business environment in Georgia. We are ready to cooperate with everyone over these issues, as well as over the issues of developing democratic processes in the country,” Nino Burjanadze said at a plenary session of the Parliament on April 11.

The Parliamentary Chairperson said that she plans to propose “new mechanisms” to the opposition, “in order to make cooperation between the opposition and the majority more constructive.” However she did not specify details of these “new mechanisms.”