Bishop Jacob offers political parties to negotiate via Church
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, November 25
Bishop Jacob of Bodbe offered the Church as a negotiation place for the opposition and government at the November 24 sermon. According to him, none of the sides interfered during the parliamentary elections, and he is praying to God for a wise team to win.
“Probably, reunification should take place in the Church...The elections should unite us, instead of dividing us, and we should try that,” he said, adding that if politicians can’t find a solution outside and ‘going to foreigners’ (meaning ambassadors) isn’t enough, they can come to the Church, since it’s a place where they can unite.
He noted that the role of the Church was also emphasized during the meeting of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with them.
Giorgi Vashadze, the leader of Strategy Builder responded to the offer to Bishop that they are not looking for negotiation platforms: “There is no problem with moderators, we already have them," he said, adding that in a secular state, such as Georgia, politics is a matter of politics, the Church is a matter of the Church.
Two rounds of meetings between the government and the opposition have already taken place with the involvement of the US and EU ambassadors. The opposition states that it does not recognize the election results and will not enter the parliament, whilst the government considers the recognition of the election results as a necessary condition for the start of negotiations.
Salome Samadashvili, a member of the United National Movement, says that in case of unsuccessful negotiations with the Georgian Dream, the election bloc UNM - Power is in Unity is going to cancel the voter list. According to the MP, this means that not only the MPs in the parliament will leave the mandate, but also they will not have any deputies - thus, the next potential MP on the list will no longer exist.
On November 23, four leading MEPs on EU-Georgia relations issued a joint statement on the second round of the parliamentary elections held on November 21 in Georgia.
They congratulated ‘a key ally of the EU’, on organizing these elections despite a challenging epidemiological context and shared the evaluation by the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and the feedback from the European Diplomatic Watch, following the first round. After the second round, MEPs expect fair, transparent, and thorough handling of all substantiated appeals and complaints.
“We regret the fact that opposition candidates did not contest seats in the second round. We ask that remaining shortcomings be addressed through a new electoral reform addressing pending OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and through the active involvement of all political parties represented in Parliament.” they wrote.
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Georgia also called on all political parties to accept the parliamentary seats they won in the recent elections and to enter the new parliament.
“These elections have resulted in a diverse parliament where the ruling majority will face a strong opposition that can ensure proper parliamentary oversight. The only appropriate forum for this, as well as for debating and challenging diverging political views, is the parliament,” said the co-rapporteurs.
According to them, there can be no perception of impunity for electoral misconduct in Georgia and the shortcomings noted by the observers need to be fully addressed. The co-rapporteurs intend to follow these proceedings closely in the framework of the ongoing monitoring procedure for the country.
The EU Delegation to Georgia publishes a comment on the 2020 parliamentary elections as well, calling on the Members of Parliament to use the mandates given to them by the citizens of Georgia to discuss unresolved political issues. The delegation also expressed concern about the distrust that affected the election process, as well as the fact that opposition candidates did not run in the second round of parliamentary elections.
European Georgia member Sergi Kapanadze responds to a statement of the delegation saying that the opposition respects the views of its international partners but does not take into account their specific friendly opinion. According to him, working with institutions proved to be futile since practically none of the claims regarding recount and cancellation were satisfied.
The third round of meetings between the opposition and the government should be held soon, the topics are yet unknown to the public.
