Ruling GD Faces to Lose Majority after MPs Quit

Ruling party Georgian Dream (GD) might lose its 115-member majority in Parliament if one more member quits the party.

On February 21, MPs Eka Beselia and Levan Gogichaishvili officially announced their decision to quit the party, while two other majority MPs, Nukri Kantaria and Gedevan Popkhadze, also said they are thinking of leaving.

If the GD is left with 111 members in Parliament, it will not be enough to keep the majority because Parliament needs support of at least 3/4 of the total number of MPs (113 votes) to make amendments to the Constitution.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili says if the GD loses majority, it "will not be a tragedy".

She explained that it is sad that some members had chosen to leave the party, but having a majority is not the aim of the ruling GD.

“Constitutional majority is not a necessary for any government, and if GD does not have it, it is no big tragedy,” she commented.

The disagreement in the ruling party came after the voting of the bill on common courts signed by her and eight other lawmakers, which envisaged the suspension of the appointment of judges for life tenure in the first and second instances of courts.

The authors of the bill are Eka Beselia, Gedevan Popkhadze, Sasha Erkvania, Zviad Kvachantiradze, Koba Narchemashvili, Levan Koberidze, Davit Chichnadze, Otar Chrdileli, and Levan Gogichaishvili.

By Thea Morrison

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