Keeping the Constitution Stable

On December 19 the Georgian parliament adopted a new resolution. According to this, any amendments in the constitution will be taken only if three-quarters of MPs vote for it. Until recently amendments in the constitution could be taken with two-thirds of the total members voting for it. Practically the new decision means that to introduce changes in the constitution, 112 members of the parliament should vote for it out of 150, whereas before it was enough for just 100 members to support it. The opposition members think that this was done from a political point of view because the current administration wants to keep the constitution as it is today. In this case, if there is a change in government, any amendments in the constitution will require bigger efforts. This decision was taken together with the decision to preserve the number of parliament members as it is today, at 150.

The ruling United National Movement and some opposition parties such as the Christian Democrats, National Democrats, New Rights, Industrialists and others attended this discussion and agreed to keep the MP number the same and make constitutional amendments tougher. Opposition members suggest that by doing so the ruling power admitted that it is really frightened that it could lose power in the next elections. The ruling authorities however claim that this was done to elaborate a sense of respect of the constitution and there is no need for trying to read between the lines.

Some analysts however think that finally the constitution should be stabilized and any ruling force should not try to adjust the constitution according its needs at all. There is a possibility however that if the government wins next year's parliamentary elections this new decision on the constitution will be overturned because the eight year practice of the National Movement shows that they have freely introduced multiple amendments to the constitution, most of them to the benefit of themselves. The current constitution is the result of the efforts of the ruling power and there are almost no changes to the constitution instigated by the opposition and clearly the government wants it to stay that way.