Georgian opposition calls on president to resign, call early election
TBILISI. May 2 (Interfax) - Georgia's opposition Labor Party has urged President Giorgi Margvelashvili to step down and to schedule an early presidential election in order to avoid the adoption of a new constitution.
"Oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili [former Georgian prime minister] has fully usurped power by massively rigging the latest parliamentary election. Now he wants to deprive people of the right to elect their president. He will put this plan into action unless decisive steps are taken. We are urging the incumbent Georgian President, Mr. Margvelashvili, to announce his resignation, which will lead to an early presidential election in two months and will forever bury Ivanishvili's treacherous plan," Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili told a press briefing on Tuesday.
This move by the president can be the only obstacle to the adoption of the new constitution drafted by the ruling party Georgian Dream, which would definitely be approved and endorsed in October 2018, given that Georgian Dream has a constitutional majority in the parliament, he said.
The constitutional amendments that have been submitted to the parliament stipulate that the Georgian president would be chosen by 300 electors from the parliament and the local authorities starting in 2023. Members of the ruling political force demanded that President Margvelashvili stop criticizing the constitutional amendments, or else, as they warned, the 2018 presidential election would be held via the new electoral system rather than by a direct vote.
All Georgian opposition parties have strongly opposed the constitutional amendments, and some of them have demanded a plebiscite on the parliament's approval of the new constitution.
Parliament Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who informed the press of the amendments developed by the constitutional commission, said on Monday that "the new Georgian constitution would meet the highest international standards."