Political unity Lelo for Georgia files a complaint regarding imposed restrictions during the state of emergency
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, July 9
On July 8-9th, the constitutional court of Georgia discussed a complaint submitted in May by political Unity Lelo, regarding the existence of violating the constitution of Georgia while declaring and managing the state of emergency by the Parliament, the government and the president of Georgia. Political unity asks the constitutional court to determine a standard according to which the state of emergency should be managed without violating the constitution of Georgia and at the same time interests of the citizens should be protected.
The plaintiff believes that the state of emergency in the country at the time of the pandemic should have been enshrined in the President’s decree and that the Georgian government should not have had such powers, as the government had restricted various rights in its sole discretion.
As Ana Natavlishvili, one of the Leaders of the party stated, Lelo for Georgia was one of the first to support the declaration of a state of emergency, however when they saw that ‘ the government started managing the situation bypassing the constitution as a result of which interests of hundreds of citizens were damaged, ’ the party decided to submit to the court.
According to Natsvlishvili, on July 7th, the president of Georgia asked the parliament for the second time to expand the period of governments’ sole governance. Natsvlishvili said that if the Georgian Dream wins the elections again, the citizens have no guarantee that the time period of a government possessing such power will not expand even more.
Members of the political movement Lelo say that if their lawsuit is upheld by the court, the government will have to compensate the citizens who were fined for violating the curfew.
Grigol Gegelia, one of the members of the party commented that the actions of the government are contrary to the best international democratic practice, which affects the international image of the country as well as the quality of democracy. Gegelia believes that the politics conducted by the present government is motivated by pro-Russian purposes.
Many politicians believe the restrictions imposed during the state of emergency by the government and the sanctions followed in case of their violation to be unnecessarily harsh and severe. The sanction for individuals was ?? 3000 (8716 individuals fined) and ?? 15000 for the juridical person (21 fined).
