Parliament Suspends Two Opposition MPs’ Mandates at Their Requests
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, November 17
The Georgian parliament has suspended the MP status of Lelo party founder Mamuka Khazaradze and leader of the Girchi-More Freedom opposition party Zurab Japaridze prematurely with 79 votes in the 150-member state legislature. The discussion of the issue was based on the appeal of the deputies themselves.
After the second round of local self-government, Khazaradze initially announced on October 31 that he would leave parliament because, he said, ‘it makes no sense to deal with people who stab them in the back and cut off their voices’. He will not have a deputy in the parliament, as the party's electoral list has been removed from the register at the CEC.
On November 1, Zurab Japaridze announced his resignation from parliament. His replacement will be Herman Sabo, a member of Girchi, who told the public that he would run for parliament if Japaridze was ousted.
Both MPs submitted an official request to parliament to have their status terminated in protest of what they claim were the ‘fabricated’ results of the recent municipal elections in October. They are demanding the annulment of the election results as well.
It should be noted that 2 factions will be disbanded - Lelo and Reform Group. According to the regulations, 7 deputies are needed to form a faction, and without Japaridze and Khazaradze, 6-6 members remain in the factions.
Nona Mamulashvili, Ana Tsitlidze and Levan Varshalomidze, members of the United National Movement, announced their resignation after the local elections, but did not make an official statement, as Mikheil Saakashvili sent a letter on November 2 stating that the faction should participate in the draft amendments before leaving office. Until then, the faction remains in boycott mode. Currently 147 MPs remain in parliament as the state legislature also suspended the status for the head of the United National Movement opposition party, Nika Melia, in early October.
Although Khazaradze has left the parliament, the Lelo faction remains in the legislature, which boycotted the parliamentary activities, but clarified that it will take part in the voting on the constitutional amendments. Recall that Lelo received 2.71% of the vote in the proportional part of the race, came fourth after the GD, the UNM and the Gakharia’s For Georgia parties. Lelo had won four seats in parliament in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
