Georgian Parliament Speaker, PACE Monitoring Committee Co-Rapporteurs discuss legislation, elections

The legislation adopted by the Georgian Parliament was discussed on Tuesday in a meeting between Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Monitoring Committee, Edite Estrela and Sabina Ćudić.

Papuashvili noted that with the local elections held in October, another electoral cycle in Georgia had been completed, and over the next three years, active work would continue in several directions, including important legislative and institutional reforms.

He stated that there was still no evidence or indication of any alleged “falsification” of the 2024 parliamentary elections, and therefore, it was unclear on what grounds the Parliamentary Assembly had called for early elections in Georgia in its resolution adopted at the beginning of the year - a move that led to the suspension of the Georgian parliamentary delegation’s participation in PACE.

Speaker also noted that the local elections had been conducted under the same conditions as the parliamentary elections, but two opposition parties had ended their boycott and participated in them. This fact, indirectly, confirms that the allegations of fraud in last year’s parliamentary elections had been deliberately false.

“I provided the co-rapporteurs with detailed information about the amendments introduced to the legislation. I noted that the laws which had been subject to criticism were currently under review by the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the European Court of Human Rights, therefore, instead of making political assessments, everyone should wait for the courts’ decisions”, Papuashvili said.

The discussion also touched upon Georgia’s plans on the path toward European Union membership.

Papuashvili confirmed that work would continue to fulfill the commitments undertaken under the Association Agreement.

During the meeting, the officials also discussed the issue of the parliamentary majority filing a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court regarding the unconstitutionality of three opposition parties.

“I emphasized that Georgia remains a committed member of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly. I underlined the importance of respecting the principles of sovereignty, democracy, rule of law, and human rights protection on the part of the Assembly”, the Parliament Speaker noted.