Changes in the Self-Government Code
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The draft law envisaging amendments to the Election Code and the Code of Local Self-Government was discussed in the first reading in the Parliament of Georgia.
According to the version initiated at the first hearing, the winning candidate in the by-elections of the municipal council will take the place of the excluded majoritarian member 11 days after the publication of the final protocol of the by-elections on the official website of the CEC.
The deputies agreed that the changes envisaged in the draft submitted for the first hearing would be extended to the deputies elected by the majoritarian rule, as well as to the members elected by the proportional rule.
As a result, according to the deputies, the adoption of the law will solve the crisis in Batumi Sakrebulo, as well as the crisis in Senaki Sakrebulo.
When the bill was initiated by members of the Georgian Dream in parliament, the opposition claimed that the ruling team had made changes to the organic law to address the crisis in the Batumi City Council.
At May 24 sitting of the parliament, Ani Tsitlidze, a member of the National Movement faction, said that if the crisis in Batumi and Senaki Sakrebulos is to be resolved through legislative changes, then the change should be extended to the MPs elected by the majoritarian system as well as the proportionally elected ones.
According to Khatia Dekanoidze, if the amendments to the law are extended to the Senaki Sakrebulo, this condition will be acceptable to them and they will support the bill.
The Chairman of the Legal Committee, Anri Okhanashvili, in response to the MPs of the National Movement, suggested to Guram Macharashvili, who submitted the bill, that in order to end the ‘political speculations’, it be regulated on the basis of one principle.
According to Guram Macharashvili, the bill submitted during the second reading will already reflect the change in the recognition of the authority of the MP elected in the by-elections as well as in the proportional system.
According to the current law, the authority of a Sakrebulo member is recognized at the Sakrebulo sitting.
The authority of the Georgian Dream majoritarian MP elected as a result of the by-elections in the Batumi Sakrebulo cannot be recognized, because the opposition is boycotting, and due to the lack of a quorum, the session cannot be held. If the session is not held by June 3, the authority of the City Council will be suspended.
Georgian Dream boycotts Senaki Sakrebulo sittings, but despite this, the opposition still held a sitting and recognized Gakharia's candidacy as a member of parliament, after which he won a majority in the Sakrebulo and was elected chairman. Georgian Dream appealed to the court to declare the opposition's actions illegal.
