Draft Constitution at Georgian Technical University

As part of the programme of public consideration of the Draft Constitution, the Constitutional Commission held a follow up meeting in Georgian Technical University with the Professors of the University on September 1. David Bakradze, the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, and the Head of the Organisational Commission on Public Consideration took part in the meeting. He introduced the main changes to the Constitution to the general public.

According to the statement of the Chairman of the Parliament, the new Draft Constitution has a European style, in which the relations between various branches of the authorities are balanced so that all branches are powerful; however, none of them dominates the other.

David Bakradze noted that the role of the Parliament will dramatically increase and that is reflected in its power to fully staff the government. According to him, the party that wins the parliamentary elections will appoint the Prime Minister, who will in turn appoint the cabinet of Ministers. If any political party has a Parliamentary majority, but less than half, the other parties will be given the opportunity to form a majority by creating a coalition and change the Government. After this change the main goal of political parties will be to win the election that will place Parliament at the centre of politics. According to the new draft Constitution, the institute of the President is not being weakened. The President will be elected directly by the people. He will be distanced from everyday political life and the affairs will be divided between the Government and the Parliament. The President will remain the supreme representative of the country in foreign relations and will have the role of arbiter should a crisis situation arise in the country. To improve the independence of the judiciary, judges will be appointed without terms, according to the draft.

According to David Bakradze, with the new Draft Constitution 'countersigning' is introduced by which neither the President nor the Prime Minister can adopt an important decision alone, without the other. "The system is so linked that every branch is a part of the decision and none of them can decide without the other. The Government is directly responsible to Parliament and the Parliament can dismiss it any time. The Prime Minister is related to the President with the institute of countersigning and vice versa. This balance creates the correct political picture and this is one of the dignities of the new constitution. I am sure that the new draft Constitution will bring to the country more stability that fully complies with the future interests of democratic Georgia,” David Bakradze noted.

Avtandil Demetrashvili, the Chairman of Georgian Constitutional Commission spoke about the different areas of the draft Constitution, in particular about the regulations on local self governance, the independence of judiciary, the Constitutional Court, the mechanisms of revision of the Constitution, the issue of protection of private property and other issues.

After the presentation of the main provisions of the new Draft Constitution the meeting continued in question and answer format.