The draft Constitutional Change that the Parliament approved with its 126 votes envisages a temporary rule different for the election of a Prosecutor-General.
Anri Okhanashvili presented the summary protocol for the Steering Commission on Public Consideration and Promulgation on the draft Constitutional Changes. “The people should receive proper information about the topic and be given the opportunity to participate in the discussions if it involves changes to the Constitution, or any other alterations of the country’s fundamental laws.” The public consideration procedure is mandated to allow the public to understand and voice their concerns and questions, as well as receive a response from commission members.
The reporteur focused on the procedural issues and substantive ones identified in the activities of the commission and briefly touched upon the content of the changes – “With regard to the content, we found that the majority of participants had a poor opinion about the core provisions of the draft Constitutional Law regarding the inadequacies of preserving the independence of the Prosecutor. “Almost everyone expressed their disapproval”.
Irakli Kobakhidze spoke about the changes that the draft law envisages. He said that the next two convocations of Parliament will elect the Prosecutor-General with a three fifths majority, or 90 votes. If the Parliament fails twice to elect the Prosecutor with a three-fifths majority of the entire membership, the Prosecutor can be elected with 76 votes in the third vote. However, their term of office will be only one year instead of the six years specified by the existing constitution. After a year, the same operation will start.
“I must speak in an odd way. You are aware that we presented a duplicate of this project exactly a year earlier. The text that we are now presenting you with was removed at that time on my initiative and our team’s effort. The withdrawal was done for the simple reason that the document which will be submitted today does not meet legal standards or governance principles. We still stand behind the criticisms of this project we made a year earlier. There are 12 items in the EU agenda for association, and these are the points that are listed with the appropriate recommendation. This law is necessary to prevent impeding the candidate’s status, the fulfilment of the 12 criteria or the progress of European Integration. We are presenting the project today because of this. According to the majority, we will fully support this document despite the legal and administrative issues that have been recorded in this document,” Kobakhidze said.
The document was approved by the Parliament after the Q&A session.
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