Anti-Crisis Council Chair Unveils New Initiatives

Parliamentary minority MP Gia Tortladze, the chairman of the Anti-Crisis Council, said on October 7 he was proposing number of initiative to the Council for discussion.

Proposals involve, he said, reform of the current electoral system and introduction of new criteria for composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC).

He, however, pointed out that discussions on the matter should start only after the local elections in the Adjara Autonomous Republic and majoritarian MP by-elections in the Tbilisi’s two single-mandate constituencies planned for November 3.

Other proposals laid out by MP Tortladze involve giving Maestro TV license for political programming; strong self-governance on the rural level; to reform the system of reserve force training; to create the services of civil defense and emergency situations; to promote small and medium businesses and to increase social allowances. He also said that the package also included a proposal to return buildings, previously owned by the Union of Writers and the Union of Composers back to the unions’ ownership.

Change of the current election code and composition of the CEC, as well as matters involving Maestro TV have also been demanded by the opposition parties, which have no representation in the Parliament.

The ruling party lawmakers said on October 7 that some of the proposals unveiled by the chairman of Anti-Crisis Council were fully shared by the authorities, but there were some, which needed a thorough consideration.

Mikheil Machavariani of the ruling party, who is the vice-speaker of the Parliament, said it was up to Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) to decide on the Maestro TV’s license on political programming.
 
MP Tortladze also said that as a result of the activities of the Anti-Crisis Council, the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) will become legally binding to air political debates. The pre-election (ahead of Adjara elections and by-elections in the Tbilisi’s two single-mandate constituencies) debates on GPB that is also envisaged by the law were resumed on October 3.

Tortladze also said that the draft law on resuming state funding for the opposition parties would be initiated in the new future. This is one of the initiatives of President Saakashvili’s “new wave of democratic reforms.”

In September Tortladze was appointed as the chairman of the Council – a body set up on President Saakashvili’s initiative, with an original goal, to oversee spending of funds coming into Georgia as part of foreign aid after the August war. The group involves politicians – mainly those from the parliamentary minority – who signed on September 5 a Charter of Politicians of Georgia. Most of the opposition parties – those which have boycotted the Parliament – have snubbed the Council.

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