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On March 18, 2013 taking into account all notes expressed during public hearing of the draft Georgian Parliament started discussing draft of the “Amendments to the Constitution”. EMC expresses its position about the initiative.
EMC considers that any Constitutional amendment motivated to favor specific political party’s interest endangers legitimacy of the rule of law in the country. Based on the statements of the governing majority we can affirm that the suggested novelty is based on the abovementioned motive and consequently should be negatively appraised. As for the content of amendments according to EMC, draft discussed during the committee meeting differs from the first version and corresponds to all recommendations expressed during the public hearing. EMC positively refers to the prohibition of dismissal of the parliament – preservation of parliamentary immunity, during the period between May of the Presidents’ last year in the office and newly elected president taking the oath.
EMC also welcomes the norms, that on one side annul president’s “unconstitutional” power to compose the Government in spite of Parliament not declaring the confidence to its composition and on the other hand, limiting the president’s discretion in fulfilling Governmental duties in case of dismissal, resignation or withdrawal of authority of the Government. Unlike the abovementioned the draft implies that in case of dismissal, resignation or withdrawal of the authority of the Government president has obligation to charge the Government with the exercise of the responsibilities until the appointment of a new composition. This wording lessens the possibility of crisis that we think is quite feasible according to our Constitution.
At the end we want to highlight that in spite of submission the enhanced draft of changes, amending the country’s most important document based on political situation we consider to be unacceptable. We realize several major problems related to the content of the Constitution, we believe in necessity to start the essential review process of the Constitution of Georgia and recommend the Government to start taking the proper steps toward this direction in timely manner.
