Discussion group confirmed and working

The group which will discuss the new draft Constitution was confirmed by Parliament on July 21. It will be led by Parliament Speaker Davit Bakradze, with Chair of the State Constitutional Commission Avtandil Demetrashvili and MP Pavle Kublashvili as his deputies. The group consists of 36 members, from the majority and opposition sides and various sectors of society.

The formation of the discussion group is the next stage in the process of adopting the Constitution and it will receive remarks and questions concerning the draft online for a month, summarise them and then present this summary to Parliament for further discussion. When the new Constitution is adopted some elements will come into force in 2011 but the clauses relating to the President's rights only in 2013, when the sitting President’s term has expired.

The group has already started working and Bakradze has met the group members, "The new project submitted to Parliament is already the subject of public and political discussion and we will continue this process. During the next month we will hold additional consultations with the public, including political parties and civil society, and we will start discussing the draft Constitution in the autumn session,” Bakradze said.

“Parliament is a sovereign body and it will talk over how to conduct its discussions on the draft Constitution after the pubic debates are over. It is not ruled out that some amendments will still be made to the draft, but the main principles of it will be maintained,” Avtandil Demetrashvili stated.

The discussion timeframe is unacceptable for the opposition representatives in the group. "August is a passive period and most Georgian people rest at that time, so they will not be able to participate actively in the discussion process. It would be better for the group to start working from September,” Nika Laliashvili, representative of the Christian Democrats said. Fellow MP Jondi Baghaturia has also applied to Parliament for the public discussion to be moved to September. However this demand was rejected. "Nearly half of Europe knows what is in this draft and I am interested in why my colleagues have not managed to study it?” Bakradze responded.

The non-Parliamentary opposition regard the Constitution project as dangerous. "The new model of governance fails to provide protection for civilians, fails to resolve the problems caused by the imbalance of powers and will not provide balance between the branches of government as it only strengthens the Prime Minister’s authority; the new Constitution shrinks Parliament’s rights and the mutual oversight of Government bodies will be impossible,” leader of the public movement Solidarity With Illegal Prisoners Eka Beselia has said.

Analyst Nika Chitadze told The Messenger, "The draft significantly increases the role of the Prime Minister and the President loses most of his influence on external and internal affairs. This means that Georgia is moving towards a Parliamentary republic. This model works successfully in Germany, Italy and some other strong and influential countries. However the main thing is that the rule of law is paramount, as if this is so all three models of governance, Parliamentary, mixed and Presidential, will work," Chitadze said. "My main questions as an ordinary citizen would be related to the administrative arrangement of the country, how power will be distributed between the central and regional authorities, and more importantly how power will be distributed between the Prime Minister and the President,” Chitadze stated. He did however agree with the opposition that it would be better to hold the public discussion in September rather than August.