Georgian Parliament to adopt new round of constitutional changes next year

The parliament of Georgia will most likely pass new a round of constitutional amendments in March of 2018, says Parliamentary Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze.

Kobakhidze explained today that a new addition can be initiated only after the latest addition of changes officially come into force.

The Georgian parliament adopted the latest addition of constitutional amendments on October 13. However, the Venice Commission has issued several recommendations for the country’s main document and parliament is planning to imitate a new addition of amendments in accordance with the Commission’s instructions.

Kobakhidze said that the current plan is the following:

• to hold two hearings for the new amendments by the end 2017, and
• to pass new amendments at its third hearing in March of 2018

"Legally, we can initiate new constitutional changes only after the previous changes come into force – in other words, after they are signed and officially published. This means, we will be able to initiate a new document in about a week”, Kobakhidze said.

He added that in the new package of amendments, parliament will only include those issues that the Venice Commission named in its recommendations. These are:

• Election blocs
• Method of sharing of undistributed votes (or bonus system)
• Freedom of religion
• Freedom to assembly and association
• Constitutional Court

The Venice Commission’s opinion on Georgian constitutional reforms can be found here.