TV Warns of Crisis if Opposition Candidate Wins
Economic and political crisis is “a possible scenario” if an opposition candidate wins the January 5 early presidential elections, Rustavi 2 TV’s weekly program, P.S., said on December 15.
The host of the program said in introducing a report that a detailed look into the matter had shown that ‘Georgia Without a President’ – an opposition slogan – was “almost impossible to materialize.” If an opposition candidate with this slogan were to win, the host said, he would have to deal with a parliament dominated by lawmakers committed to maintaining the presidency. There would also be no guarantee that the majority needed to secure the necessary constitutional amendments could be won in the next parliamentary elections.
Nine-party opposition coalition candidate Levan Gachechiladze is running a campaign under the slogan ‘Georgia Without a President.’ Some other presidential candidates, including New Rights Party leader Davit Gamkrelidze, have also been pushing for a parliamentary system, specifically for a constitutional monarchy.
The report opens with archive footage of Mikheil Saakashvili standing at the podium on inauguration day in 2004. A reporter says: “No matter which opposition presidential candidate stands on this podium on inauguration day [after the January 5 elections] – Shalva Natelashvili, Badri Patarkatsishvili, Levan Gachechiladze, Irina Sarishvili, Gia Maisashvili or Davit Gamkrelidze – the outcome will probably be the same: Georgia may appear on the verge of political and economic crisis.”
According to the report, the sitting parliament, dominated as it is by Saakashvili’s party, would avoid giving any legal justification for a potential opposition president to dissolve Parliament. It would, for instance, approve the new cabinet – a failure to do so is grounds for the dissolution of Parliament – but it would resist other presidential initiatives.
“If a new president fails to dissolve Parliament and at the same time fails to agree with it, we will face a political crisis, similar to the one in Ukraine, wherein the president, prime minister and Parliament have failed to agree on even a single issue,” the journalist concludes.