Page 7 - bne IntelliNews Georgia country report October 2017

legislative body created a 73-member commission in December comprising civil society members, politicians and independent experts to draft a new constitution.
However, the plans to amend the constitution have been racked with controversy. President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who has been in power since 2013, announced that he would boycott the commission because he was not appointed its president, but rather as a regular member. Furthermore, he has been outspoken about his opposition to the proposal to remove the direct voting system for the presidency and even launched a public PR campaign - the Constitution Belongs to Everyone - to encourage public participation in the consultation process for the constitution and promote his own views.
Meanwhile, opposition parties, Margvelashvili and civil society representatives have contested a series of stipulations in the new draft, primarily that the president would be appointed by parliament instead of being voted in directly at the polls; political parties would be banned from creating electoral blocs or alliances; and the distribution of votes to parties in a proposed proportional election system for parliament, which favoured disproportionately large parties.
Georgian Dream has sought to appease some of the criticism by postponing the date when the president would no longer be voted in directly and the date for the start of the proportional parliamentary election system to 2024, by scrapping the ban on party blocs and by making concessions to the distribution of votes in a proportional parliamentary election system. In early September, opposition parties arrived at a consensus regarding a draft of the constitution. Georgian Dream also proceeded to make amends to the document throughout the year in order to pacify some of the criticism to its original proposals.
According to the Venice Commission, the step to amend the constitution is positive, consistent with the rule of law and the principles of democracy. It also lauded the ruling party's decision to allow electoral blocs to run in parliamentary elections. However, it criticised as "highly regrettable" and "a major obstacle to reaching consensus" the decision to postpone the shift to proportional voting to 2024.
The Commission made several other recommendations related to the introduction of a requirement for a qualified majority in the body that is to elect the new president; removing the prohibition on the creation of political parties on "territorial grounds; and recommendations related to the appointment of judges on the Supreme Court and defining the role of the Constitutional Court, among others.
The Venice Commission's input is timely and worthwhile, because European institutions are highly respected in the Western-facing Caucasus country, which ultimately aims for EU membership. The parliament will vote on a legislative bill to incorporate the amendments on September 26.
7 GEORGIA Country Report October 2017 www.intellinews.com