Day: October 16, 2023

Georgian President violated the constitution

The Constitutional Court of Georgia has recognized that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili violated the country’s constitution by traveling to the EU countries despite the government’s ban.

This conclusion was announced today, October 16, by the plenum of the Constitutional Court.

Three of the nine members of the court – Irine Imerlishvili, Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze and Teimuraz Tugushi – have a different position.

Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava reads an opinion on the impeachment case against the president. Photo: IPN

• I’m not going anywhere, you should stop dreaming about my resignation’ – Georgian president
• Will the Georgian authorities be able to declare impeachment of the president, and why did they go for it?

What does this decision mean?

It means that the process will now move to the Parliament, which will be able to start the impeachment procedure against Salome Zurabishvili.

100 votes are needed to remove the president.

If the Constitutional Court confirms that the official has violated the constitution, the Parliament will discuss the issue and vote on the impeachment procedure of the official at a plenary session within two weeks after receiving the court’s decision. This plenary session may be declared closed by a decision of Parliament.

Details

The Constitutional Court concluded its review of the president’s impeachment application on October 5. The plenum heard the parties for three days.

President Salome Zurabishvili did not attend the hearings. She was defended in court by Tamar Chugoshvili, former Vice Speaker of Parliament and former member of Georgian Dream and Maya Kopaleishvili, former judge of the Constitutional Court.

background

On September 1, the ruling Georgian Dream party launched impeachment proceedings, saying the president grossly violated the constitution when she made several visits to foreign countries without authorization from the country’s government.

We are talking about three working visits – on August 31, 2023 there was a meeting with the German president, on September 1, 2023 with the president of the European Council and on September 6, 2023 with the French president.

According to Zurabishvili, she made the trips with her own funds while lobbying abroad for Georgia to be granted EU candidate status.

Context

In October, Georgia will face an important decision on granting the country candidate status for EU accession. The start of impeachment proceedings against the pro-European president will be a wake-up call for Georgia’s European partners, political observers say.

Forecast

The president needs the votes of 100 MPs to impeach him. “Georgian Dream does not have that number of votes. Inside the opposition it is not ruled out that Georgian Dream will manage to recruit some representatives and get the necessary number of votes needed for impeachment. Representatives of the opposition parties are making general statements and no one is specifically naming whom the ruling Georgian Dream party can attract to its side.

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the Parliament would vote on impeachment of President Salome Zourabichvili this week, following the ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court that said the President had violated the Constitution through her recent trip in Europe without the Government’s authorization, Agenda.ge reports.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze claimed a “majority of MPs elected by the Georgian people in the 2020 vote” would confirm Zourabichvili “is no longer worthy to hold the high status of the President of Georgia”, but also pointed to the “lower” chance of the ruling party ensuring at least 100 votes in the 150-member Parliament to dismiss her. 

Earlier today the Constitutional Court of Georgia concluded President Salome Zourabichvili had violated the country’s Constitution through her visits to Europe in late August and September without the Government’s authorization. The Court announced the ruling after days of discussion and following a request by the ruling Georgian Dream party for the review last month. 

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili claimed the ruling party was “forced” to initiate the procedures to “protect” the Constitution, and claimed the President’s actions created “threats” to the country’s European integration process. 

The President rejected the allegations and claimed her visits aimed at helping her country to obtain the European Union membership candidate status later this year, “in line with the Constitution”, which mandates the country’s authorities to act for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. 

In its decision, the Court also said the ruling was “final and not subject to appeal or revision,” with the ruling party now requiring at least 100 votes in the 150-member Parliament to dismiss Zourabichvili through impeachment. The Parliament has over 140 active MPs, with more than 80 of them representing the ruling power.