COHABITATION FACES CRISIS IN GEORGIA
On New Years’ Eve, President Mikheil Saakashvili appraised the post-election situation in Georgia as a gradual deterioration of democratic institutions and relations with western allies. A few minutes earlier, in stark contrast to this statement, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said that a “very interesting stage of the country’s development on the path of democracy and rebuilding has now started.”
The New Year addresses voiced by the President and the PM once more demonstrated the sharp differences in the visions of the two leaders and their inability to engage constructively in the cohabitation process. Saakashvili’s criticism was stirred by the parliament’s recent overturn of his veto on an amnesty bill seeking the pardon of over 3,000 inmates as well as a reduction of prison terms for thousands of others. The president vigorously condemned the possibility of exonerating 190 prisoners who were convicted for different crimes, ranging from the staging of a coup at the Mukhrovani military base to espionage for Russia, but acquired the status of prisoners of conscience by the parliament’s December 5 resolution.
“Not a single serious international organization has ever said that there are political prisoners in Georgia,” Saakashvili said at a meeting with a group of students at the presidential palace. “If someone takes this [decision by the Parliament] seriously, it means that we are the North Korean, Burmese, Belarusian and 1970s African Idi Amin-type of dictatorships combined,” he said.
At another point, Saakashvili strongly opposed the reduction of prison terms by one-fourth for those committed for especially grave crimes including sex crimes against minors. Importantly, some Georgian Dream (GD) lawmakers and the Minister of Internal Affairs Irakli Gharibashvili also considered this part of the bill unacceptable.
“So I am vetoing these parts [of the bill] granting amnesty to pedophiles and will let the Parliament override [the veto] and take the political responsibility for releasing pedophiles … but I will definitely not sign it,” Saakashvili said at the same meeting.
After two days, the parliament did overturn the veto, which required at least 89 votes or a three-fifths majority. Although GD has only 83 lawmakers, the coalition could include the votes of those who have recently deserted the Saakashvili-led United National Movement (UNM). If the president will still not sign the bill, the Speaker of parliament David Usupashvili is authorized to sign the bill into law. “I will of course sign it into law if Saakashvili again refuses to do it,” Usupashvili said.
Meanwhile, Ivanishvili has presented a plan to initiate a constitutional amendment according to which the president would maintain all of its current powers except the right to appoint a new government in the event parliament rejects to approve it. Under the current legislation, the president has a right to dismiss the government and proffer a new PM and cabinet for approval to the parliament. If the parliament fails to confirm a new government proposed by the president three times, the latter is authorized to disperse the legislative body and appoint a new cabinet without parliamentary consent. However, the president can only dissolve the parliament within the timeframe of six months after the parliamentary and six months prior to the presidential elections.
Although the suggested constitutional amendment maintains the president’s right to sack the cabinet, it enables him to do so only without disbanding the parliament. Consequently, according to the amendment, the president can dismiss the cabinet and appoint a new one only with parliament approval, meaning that in case of a crisis, parliament should be kept intact until a new one is elected through polls conducted after six months.
Usupashvili asserted that such a shift would provide guarantees for political stability in the country, especially in light of the president’s harsh criticism over the incumbent government. Saakashvili’s rhetoric gave rise to concerns that he may resort to using his right to dismiss parliament and trigger a crisis, he said. The Speaker thus insisted that by reducing the president’s overwhelming power, the proposed constitutional amendment would ensure the security of Georgia’s state institutions.
In response, Saakashvili unveiled a “five-point plan” as a way to overcome the cohabitation crisis in the country. In his New Year address, the president suggested that the two sides put an end to the aggressive rhetoric, maintain and strengthen strategic ties with the West, cease political persecution of the opposition as well as attacks on local self-governance bodies and restore the investment and business climate in the country.
However, it is very unlikely that GD would endorse Saakashvili’s suggestions. Instead, it is becoming increasingly clear that by recruiting UNM members and pressing Saakashvili’s allies in local self-governments, the coalition vigorously seeks to seize all the levers the UNM is still struggling to maintain in parliament as well as in the regions.
The overturn of the president’s veto and the pressure exerted by the government and its supporters on Sakrebulo and Gamgeoba chairpersons at various municipal administrations vividly manifest this move. The proposed constitutional amendment can also be considered part of the move to circumscribe the UNM’s remaining power base in the country.
