The first session of the Parliament of the XI convocation has begun. The session is chaired by senior member Lado Kakhadze.
Only the members elected by the list of the Georgian Dream party are present in the session hall, among them Bidzina Ivanishvili, number one on the list. 88 members of the Parliament passed the registration.
Only heads of state bodies and clergy are invited to the session.
At the first session of the Parliament, two temporary commissions – vote counting commission and mandate commission will be created. The mentioned procedure is currently underway.
In accordance with the regulations, a temporary vote counting commission consisting of 11 members is elected and supervises the preparation, distribution and voting process of ballots, monitors and counts votes during open or secret ballots. The Temporary Vote Counting Commission will cease its activity immediately after the agenda approved at the first session of the newly elected Parliament has expired.
As for the temporary mandate commission of the Parliament, it is formed with 17 members and its authority will be terminated as soon as the committee of procedural issues and rules is appointed.
Based on the regulations, the Chairman of the CEC will inform the Parliament of the results of the elections and hand over to the Credentials Commission the necessary documents for recognition of the powers of the members of the Parliament. In turn, the temporary mandate commission will study the documents and reflect the results in the draft resolution. The Parliament recognizes the authority of the members of the Parliament, with the unified list submitted by the Temporary Mandate Commission, by resolution.
It should be noted that the resolution does not include a person whose legality of election is challenged in the Constitutional Court or the General Court, as well as whose legality is considered doubtful by the temporary mandate commission of the Parliament.
The Parliament will acquire the authority from the moment of recognition of the authority of two thirds of the full composition of the members of the Parliament. From this moment, the authority of the parliament of the previous convocation will cease.
After recognizing the authority of not less than two-thirds of the full composition of the parliament, the members of the parliament take an oath of loyalty to the country.
Immediately after the first meeting of the newly elected parliament, the members of the parliament shall submit to the temporary mandate commission of the parliament the appropriate statement and documentation regarding the creation of factions and the compilation of the list of members of the parliamentary majority.
The temporary mandate commission of the parliament will provide the plenary session of the parliament with information about the creation of factions, as well as the registration of the list of members of the parliamentary majority and the list of members of the parliamentary opposition, unless the temporary mandate commission has made another decision.
The newly elected Parliament will consider issues in the following order at the first session: – elect the Speaker of the Parliament, Vice-Speakers and Committee Chairmen. The first session of the Parliament will continue until the mentioned issues are exhausted.
Based on the official results of the CEC, five political subjects entered the Parliament of the XI convocation. The party Georgian Dream retained the official majority, which was represented by 89 deputies. Coalition for Changes has 19 mandates, Unity – National Movement has 16 mandates. Strong Georgia was able to enter 14 members into the parliament, while the party Gakharia for Georgia was awarded 12 mandates.
Except for Georgian Dream, none of the parties that passed the threshold will not recognize the results published by the CEC and will not enter the parliament.
The issue of the legitimacy of the elections has been appealed to the Constitutional Court. Without waiting for the Constitutional Court’s decision, the Georgian Dream party has scheduled the first session of the 11th parliament for November 25, saying that the same session will include the certification of the credentials of members of parliament, the election of the chairman and deputies, and the election of committee chairmen.
Some constitutionalists say that the newly elected parliament does not have the right to recognize its credentials until the Constitutional Court issues its decision.
