Parliament Overrules Presidential Veto on Constitutional Amendments

The Parliament of Georgia overruled the President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s veto on the constitutional amendments at the extraordinary session on Friday.

After overruling the veto, the parliamentary Georgian Dream (GD) majority adopted the primary version of the bill with 117 votes for and 7 against.

The ruling GD has many times overridden presidential veto, because it has 116 MPs in a 150-seat parliament.

Margvelashvili vetoed the constitutional bill last week. He added six remarks to the bill and returned it back to the parliament. Margvelashvili stated that the four remarks directly reflect the commitments taken by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) before the Venice Commission. They are: abolition of bonus system, allowing creation of election blocs, constitutional court issue and the freedom of confession. 

As for the other two recommendations, one of them envisages introduction of fully proportional elections system since 2020, instead of 2024, offered by the GD majority.

The sixth issue applies to the rule of president’s election. 

The Presidential administration, opposition and the Non-Governmental Organizations called on the GD many times to accept the presidential remarks, but the Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that they adopted a very refined constitution that will ensure democratic development of the country for a long time.

“We have replaced a non-refined document with the due one, according to which a very refined European-type parliamentary governance system is being established, as remarked by Venice Commissions and other international organizations. This is a great achievement, historical decision, our pledge to the voters that has been fully fulfilled,” he stated after the veto was overridden.

Giorgi Abashishvili, Head of the President’s Administration stressed that the parliament has adopted “one-party” constitution.

“Unfortunately, the government does not understand that democracy means dialogue and agreement,” he added.

By Thea Morrison

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