Lack of Quorum Thwarts Parliament Session, Security Chief Hearing

Parliament failed to hold a session on Wednesday where lawmakers were scheduled to hear a report from the head of the State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri.

There was a lack of quorum of at least 76 MPs required for a session to be opened.

Initially 68 MPs underwent registration with the number of lawmakers present in the chamber in Kutaisi declining to 67 and further to 54 during second and third registrations.

Lawmaker from the UNM opposition party, Irma Nadirashvili, accused GD ruling coalition of thwarting the session deliberately by not showing up in the chamber and said that it was done in order to prevent grilling of security chief Gomelauri by the MPs.

Gomelauri, who was in the chamber, told journalists after the session was thwarted that he was ready to respond to lawmakers’ questions.
 
“I arrived here to present my report before the Parliament and to answer all the questions,” he said. “It is not my fault that there was no quorum in the Parliament.”

Gomelauri also said that he won’t be able to arrive in Kutaisi on Friday, when the next parliamentary session is scheduled. It is not yet clear whether his deputy, Levan Izoria, will present the report on Friday or the hearing will be delayed for later date.

Deputy Head of the State Security Service, Levan Izoria, presented the report to lawmakers at a committee hearing on March 28.

During the committee hearing opposition lawmakers from the UNM party criticized the report for not mentioning Russia’s intelligence operations in Georgia in a section describing State Security Service’s counter-intelligence measures in general terms. Opposition lawmakers, as well as some MPs from the Republican Party, which is a member of the GD ruling coalition, also criticized the report for not addressing Russia’s “soft power” and “propaganda” aimed at fueling anti-Western sentiments in Georgia. Deputy Head of the State Security Service Izoria told lawmakers that he would not discuss security agency’s counter-intelligence operations at a public hearing.

The State Security Service was separated from the Interior Ministry last year.

Gomelauri served in security detail of ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili before becoming deputy interior minister in spring 2013; he served as Interior Minister since January, 2015 before being confirmed by the parliament as head of the State Security Service in late July, 2015.