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Legislative branch

THE PARLIAMENT

The Parliament of Georgia is the supreme representative and legislative body of the country. The Parliament of Georgia determines the principle directions of domestic and foreign policy and exercises control over the activity of the Government within the framework determined by the Constitution.

The Parliament of Georgia is one-chamber, consisting of 235 members (150 members of the Parliament elected by party lists and 85 members elected by a majority system). On February 17, 2005 the Parliament passed the amendments into the Constitution declaring reduction of the Parliament membership number from 235 to 150. According to the amendments the Parliament of 2008 will consist of 100 members elected by proportional system and 50 members elected by majority system.

According to the amendments passed in the February 2005, the Parliament of Georgia was conferred a number of new authorities including the right to dismiss the Cabinet by the three fifth of the total number of members, to declare the vote of no confidence to the whole Cabinet as well as to the Prime Minister or to any of the Cabinet members. Experts interpret these changes as a considerable widening of the authorities of the Parliament on exercising control over the executive power since accordingly to the previous wording of the Constitution the supreme legislative body of the State could only complain about the activities of the Cabinet.

At the same time the executive power has obtained a mechanism to influence the legislative body: under the new wording of the Constitution the President of Georgia has the power to dissolve the Parliament.

The Parliament of the 6th convocation was formed on the basis of the elections held on November 2, 2003 (the Supreme Court of Georgia has canceled the results of the elections of November 2, 2003 relatively to the candidates, elected by the proportional system and upheld the results of the elections relatively to the candidates, elected by the majority system) and of the repeated elections of March 28, 2004, held on the basis of the proportional system.

Governing Body of the Parliament of Georgia

Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia (“President of the Parliament of Georgia” according to the Constitution) —David Bakradze.

Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia —Mikheil Machavariani

Faction affiliation of the Parliament members not necessarily coincides with their party affiliation. There were 12 political parties, movements and unions present in the Parliamentof the 6th convocation :

  • National Movement Democratic Front – bloc composed of National Movement (Mikheil Saakashvili) and Burjanadze-Democrats (95 MPs)
  • New Right (10 MPs)
  • Industry Will Save Georgia (9 MPs)
  • Republican Party (6 MPs)
  • Union of National Forces - Conservatives (4 MPs)
  • Labor Party (4 MPs)
  • Democratic Revival Union (3 MPs)
  • Political association “Strong Regions – Strong Georgia” (2 MPs)
  • Christian-Conservative Party (1 MPs)
  • Neoliberal Party (1 MPs)
  • Union of Georgian Traditionalists (1 MPs)
  • Political Union “Unity” (1 MPs)

86 members of the Parliament did not belong to any political organization.

On May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. The voter turnout was 53.9%. The final official results of the party-list, proportional contest are: The ruling National Movement Party – 59.18%; the nine-party opposition bloc – 17.73%, Christian-Democratic Party – 8.66%; and the Labor Party – 7.44%.

Thus the ruling party has 119 MPs - 48 through proportional lists and 71 majoritarians. The United Opposition has 17 MPs- 15 MPs through proportional lists and 2 majoritarians (New rights Davit Gamkrelidze in Vake and Davit Saganelidze in Didube ). The Labor Party and Christian-Democratic movement obtained 6 seats through proportional system while the Republican Party managed to gain 2 majoritarian mandates (Karlo Kopaliani in Tsageri and Roman Marsagishvili in Kazbegi).

The United Opposition contested the results of May 21 elections and boycotted the first session of the Parliament.

Official Site

Parliament of Georgia - www.parliament.ge



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