Fifth MP leaves the ruling party
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, March 1
Zviad Kvachantiradze is the fifth MP who has announced his decision about the leaving of the Georgian Dream ruling party over the past several days.
He is likely to join the new political platform another former member of the party Eka Beselia wants to create.
Kvachantiradze says that he had problems regarding many issues. However, the court-related row turned to be the decisive topic pushing him to quit the party.
“I was not happy to take the step, but I think it is the right decision before my compatriots, my friends. I join the small group of allies who made this decision for many reasons and this is not just about the court case. However, the court issues were one of the biggest red lines that pushed us to take this step," Kvachantiradze said.
He says that he wanted to leave the party several months ago and raised the issue during his meeting with the founder of the ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili.
“But it was decided then that the decision would be hasty,” Kvachantiradze said.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has already lost the constitutional majority in parliament when four of its members left the party last week.
Losing the constitutional majority means that the party will now need the support of other legislators to carry out changes in the country’s main law- in the constitution.
At least 113 votes are mandatory for making changes in the constitution. After Eka Beselia, Lasha Natsvlishvili, Gedevan Popkhadze, Levan Gogichaishvili and Zviad Kvachantiradze quit the ruling party GD now has 110 MPs in the 150-member legislative body.
Beselia, Popkhadze and Gogichaishvili left the party amid the court-related dispute, as the ruling party did not vote for the bill drafted by them which proposed the postponement of the lifetime appointment of judges until 2025.
The three lawmakers stated that they believed the Georgian Dream had betrayed its values and gave chances to those judges to stay in the court system who used to deliver biased verdicts with the indication of the United National Movement leadership.
