PM wants constitutional majority to fulfill election promises
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, October 20
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili says the ruling party wants the constitutional majority in Parliament to fulfill all the promises given to voters in the pre-election period.
Kvirikashvili stressed that opposition speculations over the threat of the constitutional majority - meaning at least 100 members in the 150-seat legislative body – were ungrounded and 'artificial'.
“First of all, we want the constitutional majority to carry out the very ambitious and dynamic development plan we made to promote the country’s future progress and to fulfill all the promises given to our people,” Kvirikashvili said yesterday.
“Unhealthy speculations that the ruling party winning a constitutional majority will have fatal consequences could not be more wrong,” the PM added.
Kvirikashvili highlighted that the constitutional majority for the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party meant “more responsibility” to the country and people.
The PM stressed the Georgian Dream Government inherited “a very unbalanced” Constitution, and a group must be created in the future Parliament to ensure such amendments in the country’s main legal document would prevent any attempts of establishing authoritarianism.
“The amendments must be adopted with the involvement of the public. Once and for all we should have a constitution of a European and democratic Georgia,” Kvirikashvili said, and added the necessity of adopting constitutional changes did not mean that the new Parliament would launch its activities as the opposition claims.
“There is no need to make haste,” Kvirikashvili said.
Kvirikashvili also stressed that the country has held 'exceptionally free' and 'transparent parliamentary elections', and this was recognized in all international report.
“Exceptionally free, transparent Parliamentary Elections took place in Georgia on October 8 and I would like to extend my congratulations to each of participants on this important victory for our country,” Kvirikashvili said.
“Each and every international organization and observer indicated that the elections were a resounding success. I want to express my sincere gratitude to our partners, observation missions, international organizations and civil society for such honest reviews,” the PM added.
The PM stated it was an important election determining an agenda of the future development of Georgia and the results “reasserted the irreversibility” of the democratic progress of the country.
Kvirikashvili appealed to voters to actively participate in the second round of majoritarian elections scheduled on October 30.
After the first round of October 8 parliamentary elections, the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party gained 67 seats through the proportional, party list voting.
The second round of majoritarian elections are scheduled on October 30, wherein ruling party candidates participate in 49 election districts out of total 50, as none of the candidates managed to overcome 50percent threshold there in the first round of the race.
The opposition and civil sector representatives stress that a constitutional majority carries serious risks that the ruling party may adopt changes contrary to the state's interests.
The United National Movement opposition and famous faces of the civil society have appealed to voters to vote for opposition candidates in the second round of elections and not to the ruling team to avoid a single party having a constitutional majority.
