Saakashvili Meets Parliamentary Minority

Parliamentary minority leaders, who met with President Saakashvili on May 11, said that they would engage in drafting of new constitution proposed by the authorities.

Before meeting with lawmakers from the parliamentary minority President Saakashvili met with representatives of those opposition parties, which are behind the ongoing protests rallies. After those meetings Saakashvili laid out proposals, which he had offered to the opposition groups. One of the proposals, he said, envisages setting up of a commission to work on a constitutional reform to create “balanced system, in which there will be place for both the strong president and the strong parliament.”

“The Georgian President has offered both the radical opposition and the parliamentary opposition a concrete plan,” Dimitri Shashkin, the minister for prison system and probation, who attended the both meetings, said. “We welcome that the parliamentary opposition has accepted those proposals.”

MP Giorgi Targamadze, leader of Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) and of parliamentary minority group, said after the meeting that a state commission will be established in the near future to work on the constitutional reform.

Vice-Speaker of the Parliament and a member of CDM, Levan Vepkhvadze, said after the meeting that the parliamentary opposition would try to have contacts with the opposition parties behind the ongoing protests on the matter.

“The part of opposition, which is holding rallies, should be part of this commission, because they represent quite large part of the society. Their absence will not be positive,” MP Vepkhvadze said.

MP Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of CDM, said that during the meeting the President said it clearly that there would be no early elections.

“The Christian-Democratic think that the new constitution will itself set new dates for elections,” he said.

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