New model of self-governance

Georgia will hold local self-government elections in spring of 2014. Time flies quickly and the Georgian Dream administration is trying to establish a new system of self-governance in the country. By the time the self-governance elections are held, the coalition will be able to offer new systems of governance to the population.

This system should be in compliance with the European model, targeted at the needs of the community, which should substitute the existing model that is suppressing the self-governing system.

The United National Movement (UNM), which is now in the opposition, is challenging the initiative of the new government, highlighting that this is not the result of consensus between the political forces.

As soon as the new political force came to power on October 1, 2012, it started promoting a new system of self-government in the country submitting a draft project of the changes.

Politicians, experts, and people who are interested in the issue kept working on the draft project and on October 30, 2013, the government approved the draft and submitted it to the parliament for further consideration.

If the parliament managed to discuss the issue and adopt it in due time, then the new self-governance elections will be held according to this system, which will enter into force after the self-government elections.

The preliminary opinion is that despite the opposition's attempts to block the changes, the new legislation will be adopted by the Georgian Dream majority.

The new code envisages increasing the number of cities in the country and giving the right to the small village communities to be identified as independent self-governing entities.

It is suggested that the local population will elect the city or village councils. It is also proposed that those entities will be able to spend the money paid into the local budget by the local enterprises. This is contrary to the existing model, where the self-governments exist only through/by the donation/transfers from the central government.

They also envisage the creation of public councils in the villages, which will make decisions on the problematic issues from the local population and highlight the priorities. The main idea of such changes is that the governing system becomes closer to the population and its needs. There will be an interactive relationship between the population and the responsible personalities.

The political forces, in particular, those who were unsuccessful either during the parliamentary or presidential election, raised their hopes for the upcoming self-government elections. They say they will try to achieve better results there.

These political forces think that the UNM in fact does not deserve to be the major opposition party and that the non-parliamentary political entities should challenge such configuration of the political reality.