Former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party “For Georgia” is taking the initiative to return direct election of the president to Georgia’s constitution.
“We call on the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream and the parliamentary majority to start working on the constitutional amendment from this spring session, regarding the return of the rule of direct election of the president by the citizens of Georgia,” Beka Liluashvili, a member of the For Georgia party, said at a briefing in the parliament.
He claims that Bidzina Ivanishvili himself recognized the problem of uncontrolled power, however, as a way to solve the problem, he offered himself to society in the role of controller. Liluashvili noted that in a democratic system, it is impossible for one person to be the guarantor of state stability.
“Gakharia’s team, the party For Georgia, has come up with an initiative to make changes in the Constitution of Georgia regarding the procedure for electing the president. In particular, the previous rule should be returned and the future president of Georgia should be directly elected by the citizens of Georgia instead of the electoral college. This provides the necessary legitimacy and independence of the president.
“Bidzina Ivanishvili also spoke about the problem of balance in the government, recognizing the issue of the unlimited and uncontrolled power of the Georgian Dream government, but instead of solving the problem constitutionally, he proposed himself as the controller, for the third time already.
“Power must be balanced. In a democratic system it is impossible for one person to be the guarantor of state stability. Logically, it should be in his interest to preserve the constitutional institutions of high legitimacy. Therefore, we call on the honorable chairman of the Dream and the parliamentary majority to start working on the constitutional change from this spring session, to bring back the rule of direct election of the President by the citizens of Georgia.
“We had this issue as part of the party’s election program, but as a result of the New Year surprises [Ivanishvili’s return], these processes were accelerated for our benefit. This experience is not foreign: many European states had to return to the rule of direct election of their presidents,” Liluashvili said.
