President says one- party rule raises questions on democracy
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, October 27
Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili has told the local media that Georgia’s one-party governance, referring to the overwhelming victory of the Georgian Dream party in the parliamentary and municipal elections, raised questions over the country’s level of democracy.
“I remember what the United National Movement [the previous gov’t] said when it was in total control of power: here we are very clever people in this party and what else can we do if the rest are not so good? How can we create opposition parties? Unfortunately, the Georgian Dream is just playing the same role,” Margvelashvili told Maestro TV.
The President also commented on his signing of the most recent constitutional draft, which he opposed.
Margvelashvili said he signed the constitutional draft so as not to give a reason to some destructive forces in Georgia to say that the country had no main legal document or concrete laws of stability.
“Initially, I vetoed it and did not sign it, though I felt afraid of putting mines in our statehood,” Margvelashvili stated.
Regarding the October 21 municipal elections, the President stated that the government still failed to refuse the usage of the administrative resources.
“The service of people in public services should not be related to their political choices,” the President said.
The Georgian Dream government has many times accused the President of acting in a negative role in the constitutional reform process, as the President criticized several key points in the amended law.
Two major points he opposed were a delay to moving to fully proportional election representation and the election of the president by delegates and not by the people.
With regards to the recent municipal elections, the Georgian Dream says they will use their power to develop the country.
However, international organizations, particularly the NDI, have stated that one-party governance was and is a national challenge.
