CDM Offers its Model of Constitutional Reforms

Giorgi Targamadze, leader of the Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) and of parliamentary minority, welcomed the President’s proposal to establish a commission on constitutional reforms, but rejected a formula of “strong president – strong parliament” offered by Saakashvili on May 11.

MP Giorgi Targamadze said on May 13, that the key goal of his participation in the commission would be “transition of the country to the parliamentary model of governance.”
 
He said that the new constitutional should be based on “a formula of strong parliament, strong government and a president, which will be an arbiter without party affiliation.” 

President Saakashvili said after talks with opposition leaders on May 11, that he had offered number of proposals including to launch discussions on constitutional reform to create “balanced system, in which there will be place for both the strong president and the strong parliament.”

On May 12, Gigi Ugulava, the mayor of Tbilisi, who is Saakashvili’s close ally, said that the proposal envisaged increase of the parliamentary powers giving the legislative body right to compose the government. “The government will be composed by political forces, which will win in parliamentary [elections] and president will not participate in this process,” he said.

The authorities have also offered the opposition to nominate chairman of the commission on constitutional reform from its ranks. The Christian-Democrats, however, said that they did not share the opinion, that the commission should be chaired by an opposition representative. MP Levan Vepkhvadze said that the commission should be led by an independent legal expert with no party affiliation.

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