Burjanadze: We are Willing to Cooperate with Opposition
A constitutional amendment allowing for a new confidence vote for the cabinet after the parliamentary elections will be introduces as part of an agreement with the opposition, Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said on February 11.
A constitutional amendment stipulating that the cabinet resigns automatically after parliamentary elections is one of 17 demands outlined in a joint opposition memorandum.
“We are starting discussion of this [constitutional amendment], so anyone willing to participate can join,” she said. “This dialogue is real and the authorities’ willingness to cooperate is very serious and steps that have been undertaken by us recently demonstrate this.”
She warned, however, that putting forth new demands and deadlines by the opposition “will only complicate the [negotiating] process.” The nine-party opposition coalition reiterated on February 11 that it would not continue talks with the authorities unless immediate tangible results were delivered.
The opposition wants three of its 17 demands, which they say require no time-consuming legislative amendments, to be met immediately: the release of, what the opposition describes as, “political prisoners” – most of whom were arrested during the November 7 unrest – and the dismissal of Tamar Kintsurashvili, director general of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), and Levan Tarkhnishvili, chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
