Georgian Parliament Speaker says parliamentary majority will seek legal action against UNM party

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the parliamentary majority intended to appeal to the Constitutional Court with the aim of dismantling the United National Movement party and its “treacherous political scheme" in the country”, in comments over the work of the Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission examining alleged crimes committed by the former United National Movement Government between 2003 and 2012.

In his remarks, Papuashvili reiterated that the ruling Georgian Dream party, in line with its election commitments, was moving forward with its legal efforts to ban the United National Movement party through a constitutional lawsuit.

“This is not news to anyone. This is part of our electoral pledge. I want to remind everyone that what we have been doing over the past few weeks, since the formation of the parliament following the elections, is strictly adhering to our commitments. We are meticulously and step by step fulfilling our electoral promises”, the Speaker said.
Papuashvili reiterated that the ruling party had received a mandate from 1,120,000 Georgian citizens to establish a commission investigating UNM’s alleged crimes and subsequently appeal to the Constitutional Court.

“In other words, we are doing exactly what the people of Georgia mandated us to do. 1,120,000 citizens gave us the mandate specifically to create a commission and investigate the crimes committed by the United National Movement and address the Constitutional Court, so that once and for all, this criminal, traitorous organisation is finished”, Papuashvili concluded.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said the findings of the Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission examining alleged crimes committed by the former United National Movement Government between 2003 and 2012 would provide a solid legal basis to appeal to the Constitutional Court for declaring the opposition United National Movement party and its satellite parties “unconstitutional”.

In his remarks, Mdinaradze reaffirmed that this initiative was part of the ruling party’s pre-election commitments.

“It is already clear that the findings of the Investigative Commission will give us a solid basis to appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the declaration of the United National Movement and its satellite parties as unconstitutional”, the ruling party official said.