At Republican Party Congress, Deputy Secretary of NSC Speaks of Georgia’s ‘Institutional Ambiguity’

Addressing a congress of the Republican Party, one of the five parties within the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition, its long-time member and deputy secretary of President’s National Security Council (NSC), Ivliane Khaindrava, spoke of what he called “institutional ambiguity” and unclear decision-making process both within the coalition and the government.

In his speech at the congress on December 6 Khaindrava, who holds the post of deputy secretary of NSC since mid-2014, said that “vastly increased level of freedoms” in Georgia has been the major achievement of past three years, since the GD coalition is in power. He also said that he shares views voiced by other party leaders at the congress about the progress made by the Republican Party, but told the delegates that he wanted to highlight other aspects of the existing situation.

“We operate in the condition of unclear constitution, where institutional ambiguity is exacerbated by unclear personal relationships between representatives of the authorities. Political playing field in our country is littered by phobias and complexes, mania and grudge, incompetence and of course excessive ambitions,” Khaindrava said, adding that the Republican Party itself is not immune from the latter one.

“No one knows in advance with whom lies the final say on a specific issue, who is the person, institution or what is framework within which final agreement is reached to solve a specific problem,” he said.

“It was not accidental that a month ago when the president of a neighboring country, who was paying an official visit to Georgia, met our President, Prime Minister, Parliament Speaker, former Prime Minister and the [head of the Georgian Orthodox Church] Patriarch [Ilia II],” Khaindrava said referring to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who along with Georgian leadership and the Patriarch also met ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili during the visit in early November.

“We should acknowledge sharp-sightedness of the president of our friendly country, but I personally doubt that after those meetings the guest left the country reassured that centers of government in [Georgia] are so consolidated and in harmony that no threat poses to our strategic partnership. Like many of our foreign partners, he too would have left the country with the sense of uncertainty,” Khaindrava said.

“Let’s not blame everything on really completely faulty constitution left by the previous authorities. The country is governed by the [GD] coalition, which is governed exactly the same way as it governs the country – formally the coalition has the leader [PM Irakli Garibashvili], on top of that it has informal leader [ex-PM Ivanishvili], it has a political council and some other bodies, but it is not prescribed anywhere who, based on what and through what procedures decisions are being made; it has never been prescribed and as it seems it will never be. And as it also seems the coalition and our [Republican] party will enter into election cycle with this uncertainty,” he said.

“And we are moving into electoral mode in a condition wherein certain part of this ambiguous coalition sympathizes not with Tamar Khidasheli but Irma Inashvili,” Khaindrava said.

He was referring to a race for majoritarian MP seat in Sagarejo during by-election in late October in which Republican Party member, Tamar Khidasheli, nominated by the GD coalition, narrowly defeated one of the leaders of the Alliance of Patriots party Irma Inashvili. There was speculation ahead of the by-election that GD was inclined to tacitly support Inashvili in winning the vote and to then use failure of the Republican Party member in the polls for sidelining the party within the coalition. Ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili strongly denied such speculation at the time and called on voters in Sagarejo to cast their ballots for Tamar Khidasheli.

Khaindrava also complained that the Republican Party itself has been to some extent “infected with this governance ambiguity”, arguing that party’s formal decision-making process is lagging behind developments, making the process in some cases a mere formality.

The role of the Republican Party within the GD ruling coalition was one of the main issues addressed by party leaders in their speeches at the congress, saying that the Republicans have assumed more responsibility by taking two more cabinet posts this year. Republican Party member Paata Zakareishvili is the State Minister for Civil Equality and Reconciliation since late 2012; two Republicans, Tina Khidasheli and Gigla Agulashvili, became defense and environment ministers, respectively, this year.

“It was a risk, but we are ready for this responsibility and are ready to have even more Republicans in the government,” said Khatuna Samnidze, who was re-elected as Republican Party chairperson for a second two-year term at the congress on December 6.

She said that operating within the coalition means that for the sake of keeping consensus and unity within the coalition at times the party has to grudgingly accept such decisions, which causes “disappointment” among the Republican Party’s liberal-minded loyal support base. She also reiterated Republican Party’s calls for “more democratization” of the coalition and its decision-making process and also spoke of a need to have a “coalition agreement” ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections. She said that the Republicans remain “reliable partners” within the GD coalition.

Parliament speaker, Davit Usupashvili, a former chairman of the Republican Party, also mentioned in his speech the need “improve culture of coalition” governance. He said that the Republican Party is “relatively small” within the GD, but it has responsibilities not less than those of other coalition members.

“It may sound ambitious, but the ruling coalition would not have been formed without the Republican Party,” Usupashvili said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)