Georgia’s Parliament in Crisis
A leader of the opposition party “Unity National Movement”, Levan Bezhashvili, is making a bold claim. He says that if all members from four opposition parties refuse to be registered as deputies, the parliament will lose its legitimacy.
According to the constitution, at least 100 deputies must have a certificate of authority to make the parliament legitimate. This document is issued by the Central Election Commission (CEC). Bezhashvili claims that if all opposition members refuse registration, the remaining deputies from the ruling party “Georgian Dream” will not meet this requirement.
The goal, Bezhashvili says, is for the upcoming elections to be declared illegitimate. To achieve this, he suggests that the list members of all four opposition parties should request the CEC not to register them as elected deputies against their will.
In such a scenario, only 89 deputies from “Georgian Dream” would remain in parliament. This would render it illegitimate since there wouldn’t be enough registered deputies to fulfill the constitutional requirement.
However, if the CEC accepts a summary protocol of election results before the refusal of mandates, the authority of 150 deputies will be recognized, making it harder for opposition parties to delegitimize the parliament formed from these falsified elections.