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THE GEORGIAN TIMES: PARLIAMENT SURPRISE START BEWILDERS OPPOSITION
The new Parliament kicked off its inaugural session on June 7, a few days earlier than expected. This rush to convene left no time for opposition members to challenge the first meeting with the large-scale demonstrations they have been planning. Saakashvili’s tricky move has enraged opposition groups.
According to the constitution the first session must be held within 20 days after the elections, the president of Georgia announces the date of the first session, and the parliament begins functioning with at least 2/3 eligible mandates.
As the elections were held on May 21, the deadline for the parliament to begin was June 10. The real date of the first parliament session was unknown until the last minute on June 6. Opposition members learned only late on Friday that Parliament would conduct its first session next morning.
This decision came as a big surprise for most politicians, as most expected the session would fall on June 9 and 10. Therefore, an opposition protest rally to contest the ruling party’s parliamentary majority was scheduled for June 8; the opposition had even obtained a permission from Tbilisi City hall to hold demonstrations. Furthermore, Tbilisi City hall reminded the opposition parties of the fact that on June 10, the first session of new parliament would be held and the protest rally should not prevent the activities of the legislative body. However, the government’s tricky maneuver left no room for opposition to picket and thus hinder the legitimization of the new parliament.
The inaugural session opened at 10 am local time on June 7 with a seven-minute speech by President Saakashvili in which he underlined the importance of national unity.
As the Constitution stated, the most senior members are eligible to open the first session of parliament; Irakli Kenchoshvili, 72, who was 13th on the list of the ruling party took this mission. As expected, MPs voted unanimously (116 votes against, 4 abstain) for Davit Bakradze as Parliament Chairman. He was the first candidate of the National Movement.
Levan Tarkhnishvili, CEC Chair, once again presented the final report on election results. According to the final vote tally, the total number of eligible voters was 3,465,736; 1,850,407 voters cast their ballots in the parliamentary elections – making the voter turnout 53.9%. A total of 56,099 ballot papers were annulled.
The final official results of the party-list, proportional contest are: The ruling National Movement Party – 59.18% (1,050,237 votes); the nine-party opposition bloc – 17.73% (314,668 votes), Christian-Democratic Party – 8.66% (153,634 votes); and the Labor Party – 7.44% (132,092 votes).
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 six seats through proportional system while the Republican Party managed to gain two majoritarian mandates (Karlo Kopaliani in Tsageri and Roman Marsagishvili in Kazbegi).
Other blocs running that failed to clear the 5% threshold included the Republican Party - 3.78% (67,037 votes); the Christian-Democratic Alliance - 0.89% (15,839 votes); the Rightist Alliance-Topadze-Industrialists- 0.93% (16,440 votes); the Traditionalists, Our Georgia, Women’s Party – 0.44% (7,880 votes); Georgian Politics – 0.46% (8,231 votes); the Union of Georgian Sportsmen – 0.19% (3,308 votes); the National Party of All-Georgian Radical-Democrats – 0.18% (3,180 votes); and Our Country – 0.12% (2,101 votes).
Opposition Confused over Further Actions
United Opposition and Labor Party responded that they are determined to, “fight to the end,” and they would not enter parliament. To demonstrate their refusal to take part, Levan Gachechiladze, Davit Gamkrelidze, Koba Davitashvili and Shalva Natelashvili cut their mandates with scissors during a public protest.
“Saakashvili wanted to move the fight from the parliament to the street, and now, he will receive his fight in the street,” said Gamkrelidze. “We will create an alternative political center [previously referred to as an alternative parliament- GT] in Georgia and this center will be throughout Georgia,” Gamkrelidze said.
The radical opposition dubbed those MPs planning to enter Parliament as “shameless.” Among those who hinted they would occupy their seats in parliament are Gia Tortladze, Gia Tsagareishvili, Jondi Baghaturia, “unless a unanimous opposition boycott” takes place.
“Shame on those parties and politicians who would enter this parliament” Davit Gamkrelidze said and added that Georgia had not had legitimate president on January 5 and it now no longer has a legitimate parliament.
Other ‘constructive-minded’ opposition parties also signaled they were willing to attend the next sessions. Vepkhvadze noted that, in this regard, the Christian-Democratic movement said they would not attend the first session but, ultimately, they would not say no to their mandates.
The government’s offer
Parliament speaker Davit Bakradze called on the opposition to give up their boycott idea and stated that the government is ready to cooperate with the opposition to provide their participation in the ruling process as well as legislative activities.
”We offer the post of vice-speaker as well as participation in parliamentary committees to the opposition. We are also poised to change the agenda so that the opposition will be able to form a faction through 6 rather than 7 members,” said Bakradze.
According to Bakradze, the opposition can take over positions of two vice-speakers (parliament will have 5 vice-speakers in total) and positions on parliamentary committees, as well as has the opportunity to create a fraction of six deputies. In the previous parliament, at least 10 mandates were needed to create factions.
Having factions means some political privileges: including membership in parliament bureaus, guarantees seats in committees, investigative commissions, and parliamentary delegations.
“This is not a full list. We now expect counter proposals, which will serve the full-fledged representation of opposition into parliament. We expect cooperation from them,” Bakradze said after the session.
Nevertheless, most of opposition members rejected the offer saying they will stick to their strike. According to Gamkrelidze, the opposition is eligible to take the posts of vice-speaker and deputy heads of parliamentary committees. Hence, there is nothing new in the authorities’ proposal. Additionally, the rigged elections will still not have been fair if the opposition accepts the offer: “The problem concerns injustice rather than the posts in the parliament
Nino Japaridze
The Georgian Times, June 9, 2008
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