President Appoints First Sitting of New Parliament

By Thea Morrison

TBILISI – The President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, appointed the date of the first sitting of Georgia’s ninth Parliament and it will be held on November 19 at 12.00PM.

The information was released by the Presidential Administration following the final protocol of the Central Election Commission (CEC), which published the summarizing document on Wednesday.

“The President’s Administration appointed the date of the first session after holding consultations with all parties,” the statement of the Presidential Administration reads.

The President will deliver speech at the first session and also Parliament Speaker, Vice-Speakers and Committee Chairmen will be elected too.

The new Parliament will start working right after the authority of at least two thirds of the MPs will be recognized. After this, the authority of the current government and the parliament will be suspended automatically and the procedures of formation of new parliament will be launched.

The election subject, which achieved the best results in the elections, will present their candidate on the post of the Prime Minister within 5 days after suspension of old government’s term.

On his own, the presented PM candidate will form the Cabinet and present it to the parliament. The parliament will have to approve or disapprove the new government within 7 days.

According to relevant procedures, the candidate for Prime Minister and the updated Cabinet of Ministers needs to be confirmed by a majority of Parliament Members, meaning they must gain at least 76 votes out of the 150-seat Parliament. 

If the Parliament of Georgia failed to approve the candidate for Prime Minister or the updated Cabinet of Ministers three times, the country’s President has the right to dissolve Parliament and order snap Parliamentary Elections. 

Georgia’s parliamentary elections were held on October 8. The second round took place on October 30 in 50 districts, from which 18 were in the capital, Tbilisi, and 32 in the other regions of Georgia.

The final results of the CEC showed that only three political parties managed to pass the election threshold and gain seats in Georgia’s ninth Parliament. These parties are:

Ruling party Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (DGGD) - 856 638 votes (115 seats)

Main opposition Party United National Movement (UNM) - 477 053 votes (27 mandates)

Pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots of Georgia (APG) - 88 097 votes (6mandates).

As the ruling team has the constitutional majority in the new parliament, their votes will be enough to approve the new government, even if the opposition MPs will be against.