The draft Constitutional Change, which the Parliament approved with 126 votes, envisages a different temporary rule for the election of the Prosecutor General.
The head of the Steering Commission on Public Consideration and Promulgation of the draft Constitutional Changes, Anri Okhanashvili, presented the summary protocol of the commission – “The people should be properly informed about the topic and given the chance to participate in the discussion if it involves making changes to the Constitution or any other alterations to the country’s fundamental law. To allow the public to understand the rationale behind a proposed change, to voice their thoughts and inquiries, and to receive a response from the commission members, the public consideration procedure is mandated by law.”
The rapporteur dwelt on the procedural and substantive issues identified within the commission’s activities and briefly touched on the content of the change – “Regarding the content, we discovered that the majority of those attending the sessions had a generally poor opinion of the draft constitutional law’s core provisions regarding the inadequacies in preserving the independence and stability of the Prosecutor General. Almost everyone voiced their disapproval of the information”.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the leader of the Parliamentary Majority, spoke about the changes envisaged by the draft law. He noted that the Parliament of the next two convocations will elect the Prosecutor General with a three-fifths majority of the full composition, or 90 votes. The Prosecutor General can be elected in the third vote with 76 votes if the Parliament fails to elect him or her twice with a three-fifths majority of the entire membership, however, their tenure of office will only be one year rather than the six years specified under the existing constitution. The identical operation will begin after a year.
“I have to speak in a slightly peculiar manner. As you are aware, we presented an exact duplicate of this project a year prior. At that time, the text we are presenting to you again was removed on my own initiative and the effort of our team. The withdrawal was made for the straightforward reason that the document that will be submitted today is wholly incompatible with both legal standards and governance rationale. We still stand by the criticisms we made of this project a year ago. However, there are 12 items on the EU association agenda, and those are the points where the appropriate recommendation is listed. In order to avoid impeding the candidate status, the fulfillment of the 12 criteria, or the progress of European integration, it is required to pass this law. Due to this, we are presenting this project today, and according to the majority’s position, we will be fully supporting this document in spite of the recorded legal and administrative issues in this document,” Kobakhidze stated.
The Parliament approved the document following the Q&A mode.
