Ruling Party Condemns Opposition Annulment of MP Mandates as ‘Wrong’

Ruling party lawmakers have said the decision of some opposition MPs to renounce their mandates would further marginalize their respective political parties.

Givi Targamadze, a senor lawmaker from the ruling party, said the recent decision was yet another one in a series of “irresponsible decisions” by the opposition. “But this recent one was the peak of irresponsibility,” he said and added that the move would leave them out of the political processes.

“I think it is a wrong decision. The right decision was made by those opposition MPs who agreed to enter Parliament,” Pavle Kublashvili, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for legal affairs, said.

Twelve lawmakers elected on the opposition coalition’s joint ticket on the party-list system made an official appeal to the parliamentary chairman to renounce their MP mandates. Five MPs elected on the coalition joint ticket have refused to do so.

The Christian-Democratic Party, which has six lawmakers, has also rejected the boycott.

The Labor Party, which also has endorsed six MPs, said it would boycott Parliament, but refused to make an official appeal renouncing their MP mandates. Two of the six lawmakers elected on the Labor Party’s joint ticket have already entered Parliament, prompting party leadership criticism.

Twelve seats in the 150-member parliament will remain vacant.

Only two of them will be filled sometime in autumn when by-elections will be held in Tbilisi’s two single-mandate constituencies. By-elections are necessary because two opposition MPs – Davit Gamkrelidze and Davit Saganelidze – who renounced their mandates won majoritarian contests in the single-mandate constituencies.

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