Mikheil Sarjveladze Neither Excludes nor Confirms Parliament to Have Candidate for Ombudsman
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Mikheil Sarjveladze, Chairman of the Human Rights Protection Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, told the media that comparing positions for the best model for electing the Public Defender is still underway. He added that he does not have any information that the consultation for the selection of the Public Defender is currently underway.
According to him, political consultations should be effective. As Sarjveladze said the most important thing for the 'Georgian Dream' now is to be less dependent on the 'conscientiousness' of the opposition.
"We need to focus on the result. Moreover, it is required by the 12 recommendations of the European Commission. Beyond that, it is important for the country that the Public Defender's Institute works properly and that it has a Public Defender elected for six years. Political consultations should be effective and if we entrust this process only to the opposition and their conscientiousness, unfortunately, there was not enough conscientiousness in the votes. Therefore, we will have to conduct the process in a different way. Consultations will show how it will be otherwise. It will be seen what the perspective can be in order to choose a public defender. I do not have any information that the consultation for the selection of the Public Defender is currently underway.
I can neither exclude nor confirm that we will have a candidate. Positions are being compared, what will be the best model. It is very important not to have any hindering factors, which meant the impossibility of allowing a compromise on the part of the opposition. At some point, an ultimatum was issued, and unfortunately, the party issuing the ultimatum was held hostage. Due to the arguments, the candidates named by them could not be impartial.
The previous attempt was unsuccessful and the opposition will also be cautious in issuing such ultimatums, as it was clearly felt that many opposition members were prevented from making a decision because they had given harsh ultimatums. We cannot invent a new bicycle when selecting a public defender. We need a qualified staff with an orderly system of values. "Impartiality is no less important, which implies political impartiality," said Sarjveladze.
On December 22, 2022, the Parliament rejected all candidates for the position of Public Defender. The reason was the decision of the ruling team, Georgian Dream, not to support the presented candidates.
