Some Constitutional Amendments Passed, Others Postponed

Parliament unanimously passed on February 26 a number of constitutional amendments on the status of regional governors and the introduction of vice-premiers. It failed, however, to vote on key amendments because of disagreement between the ruling party and the opposition.

One of the amendments passed with the support of both the ruling party and opposition envisages the introduction of governors in provincial regions. The amendment in fact brings little change in practice. The position of President’s Special Representative (Rtsmunebuli, informally known as governor) has existed for years, but has never been reflected in the constitution. Now officially named Governors will still remain under presidential subordination, and will continue to oversee local self-governance bodies on behalf of the central authorities.
 
The other constitutional amendment has introduced a first vice-premier and vice-premiers into the cabinet. Currently there is only one vice-premier (Giorgi Baramidze, who is also the state minister for Euro-Atlantic integration issues.) According to the amendment, members of the cabinet can assume the position of vice-premier, and so no new cabinet members are required.

Parliament postponed voting on the a package of draft laws, involving a number of key controversial constitutional amendments.

Extending the life of parliament from the current four to five years is among them. The opposition is against the proposal, which if approved will apply to the new parliament to be elected this May. The authorities proposed the amendment after President Saakashvili said several times that he wanted parliamentary and presidential elections to be held simultaneously – Georgia’s President is elected for a five-year term.

Another controversial amendment in the package involves, according to the opposition, a further increase in presidential power in respect of the dissolution of Parliament. “That is totally unacceptable,” Davit Usupashvili, the leader of the opposition Republican Party, who met ruling party negotiators earlier on February 26 on the matter, said.

The abolition of the first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all system of electing majoritarian lawmakers was also in the package. Although both sides have agreed in principle to scrap the system, an alternative cannot be agreed upon.

Although both sides agree to reduce the election threshold from the current 7% to 5%, it also fell victim to the sides’ inability to pass the entire package.