On September 5, at the opening of the fall session of the Parliament voted on the early termination of the mandates of “Georgian Dream” MPs Ketevan Dumbadze and Davit Sergeenko. With 68 votes in favor, the mandate of Dumbadze was terminated, while Parliament rejected the termination of Sergeenko’s powers.
According to Irakli Kadagishvili, Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee, Dumbadze’s mandate was terminated due to her new role as the director of the House of Writers, which is incompatible with her position as a member of Parliament.
The Ministry of Culture and Sports of Georgia made the controversial announcement of Dumbadze’s appointment as its director on August 10, and she officially began her duties on September 4. Georgian writers, translators, publishers, and individuals involved in the literary field have voiced their protest against Ketevan Dumbadze’s appointment, citing their opposition to a new director who had previously voted in the Parliament in favor of the so-called Foreign Agent’s Law.
As for MP Davit Sergeenko, the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee decided to end his term of office on July 14 due to excessive and unexplained absences. According to Kadagishvili, Sergeenko’s parliamentary credentials were deemed invalid because he missed 25 out of 32 regular sessions during the spring session of 2023. However, only two MPs voted in favor of terminating his mandate yesterday, while 12 voted against it.
Sergeenko is a former health minister and longtime Bidzina Ivanishvili cadre. Notably, Sergeenko voted against the draft law “On the transparency of foreign influence” in its first reading, which was withdrawn by the ruling majority in the face of mass protests. After the GD was forced to vote down the bill following the mass protests in March of this year, Davit Sergeenko expressed his desire to resign from Parliament, stating: “Being a politician is not what I dreamed of. I prefer to work as a doctor. Undoubtedly, the 10th convocation is the last convocation when I am in the Parliament, public service, and politics.”
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