Irakli Kobakhidze: with the developed document we get a very improved Parliamentary administration system

The draft was initiated 1.5 month ago followed with public considerations.

“Considerations lasted for a month. We have held three main meetings: in Kutaisi with the academic circles, the professors of the Universities of West Georgia, students, NGOs and media as well. The second meeting was held in Tbilisi with the professors of Universities of East Georgia and the third meeting was held with the Constitutional agencies. We have represented the changes to the Constitution, heard the comments and remarks. As to five issues initiated, no principal remarks have been expressed, just the additional comments regarding other Articles and the document we introduce now reflects all of them. It was the context of public considerations”.  

He noted that the draft has been developed according to the recommendations of the Venice Commission.

“There are four recommendations. When the draft was initiated, four respective changes were reflected supplemented with the fifth – change of the terms related to the Presidential election. No other changes have been introduced, though sundry changes have been added mostly of technical nature”.

The amendment to the Article 5 is related to the environmental protection. “The state cares about environment, rational use of natural resources and ecologically sustainable development – this is the formulation. As you know, environmental protection is guaranteed with the Chapter II. We offer the additional social state principle outlining”.

According to the VC recommendation, the text of the Article 16 is changed concerning freedom of faith. “We shared the recommendation. The new text will be in compliance with Venice Commission. Moreover, it will define higher standards than European Convention on Freedom of Faith”.

Regarding the Article 24 on suffrage, he elucidated that the minor amendment was offered. “According to the new edition, the citizen shall have no right to participate in elections and referendum who is convicted to the penitentiary for the particularly grave crime. The opinion of one of the experts envisaged that the particularly grave crime may be deliberate. It is principal and conceptual. The text allows interpretation that the crime may be deliberate or not. Hence, the term “deliberate” has been removed”.

He spoke about the Article 27 and remarks. “We have added the record on the academic freedom and the Principal of TSU offered to add the text on autonomy of the University. According to the new edition, academic freedom and autonomy will be guaranteed”.

The Article 37 concerns the Parliamentary elections and all changes are important. “It is the most important change concerning bonus system. According to the initial recommendation of the Venice Commission, we should amend the bonus, though the final opinion expressed to totally annul it. We see risks in annulment. The objective was to ensure bonus system stability with pluralism. So, annulment is related to some risks, though our common responsibility is to take care of institutionalism and consolidation of the political system to reduce the risks related to the proportional elections. Hence, the paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 will be removed and the paragraph 6 will be amended in the Article 37. To define the mandates, the number of votes obtained by the party shall be multiplied with 150 and divided into the total number of obtained votes by all the parties with at least 5% of votes”.

This change specifies mandate distribution rule and prevents manipulations. As to the Presidential election, the term “voters” has been replaced with “member of the election board”.

The Article 60 on elections provides the Constitutional Court authority. 2 changes were introduced to the paragraph 6. “First of all we outlined terms – as it was provided, it is inadmissible for the Constitutional Court to recognize the norm regulating the elections as unconstitutional within the respective year, it this norm is not adopted for 1 year before the elections. The edition established 3 month term for consideration. The recommendation offered extension of the term. We added 3 more months. So, the Court has 6 months to consider the claim. The recommendation also concerned removal of the norm on consensus”.

Changes concern the High Council of Justice. “We added the authority term of the HCJ members – 4 years are ensured for all members. We also specified that the Chair ex officio is the member of the Council. We also specified the rule of election of the Council secretary  who shall be elected with the term of 4 years amongst the members by the Administrative Body of the Judges of the Common Courts”.

He spoke about transitional provisions in the Article 2 envisaging maintenance of the blocs in single manner. “It was Venice Commission recommendation. For me personally, it is not acceptable, though we achieved the political consensus. This institute entails risks of manipulation, but we will try to prevent these risks on legal level”.

The offer was also concerning the citizenship. “Acquisition of foreign citizenship is not a priori the basis for deprivation of Georgian citizenship. We were offered to enact this norm sooner than others – earlier than in November. So we add the transitional record envisaging enactment of this norm upon promulgation”.

He spoke about remarks by the Committees related to access to public information. “The Ministry of Justice initiated to formulate the basis for interference according to the European Convention, though the Committee held the discussion. We asked the Ministry to provide the examples of classification of information but no examples were provided. Hence, we did not reflect the offer. But if they do, we can resume to it at the II reading”.

MPs expressed their opinions and asked about terms and rule of issue of public information. According to Giorgi Volski, the Justice Ministry had opinions about the Article 18 concerning issue of classified information which is in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and Georgian Constitution. According to Eka Beselia, the changes are in compliance with Venice Commission recommendations.

“These changes comply with the recommendations. The standard of the Parliamentary Republic as defined under the modern constitutionalist approaches, is the most democratic form of administration. The Bill facilitates to higher standards of democracy as each component of the changes complies with these democratic values”.

The Speaker summing up stated that the document ensures improved Parliamentary system. “With the document developed, to be ratified upon adoption of the changes, we get the improved Parliamentary system, one of the characteristics of which is proportional elections. It ensures prevention of all problems we remember form 90s and especially after 2004 – semi-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes with the distorted Constitution as one of the pillars. The Constitution was incorrectly formulated especially with changes of 2004 envisaging unbalanced pro-authoritarian document entailing abuse of human rights and negligence of democracy. We eliminate the problems and establish the system and the Constitution to prevent such crisis in long-term run. We develop a very improved Constitution ensuring long-term democratic development”.