UNM to sign EU-mediated agreement after months of refusal to do so, ruling party calls step ‘funny’
UNM head Nika Melia says that the country’s fate is dependent on the upcoming October 2 municipal elections and the opposition’s unity. Photo: Nika Melia’s Facebook page.
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The United National Movement (UNM), the largest opposition party in Georgia, has decided to join the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement after more than four months of refusing to do so.
The UNM’s decision comes on the heels of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s withdrawal from the agreement at the end of July ‘because the main opposition, the UNM, refused to join the agreement,while other opposition parties were constantly violating it.’
The agreement was proposed by European Council President Charles Michel and aimed to help Georgian political parties resolve a more than six-month political standoff in the country which began after the 2020 parliamentary elections.
@UNMGeorgia signs the #EU-mediated agr't. @NikaMelia5: Despite some controversial clauses in the agr't that prevented us from signing the document, today, considering the risks looming over our statehood, it is our obligation to stand above our opinions & controversies, & sign it
— UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) September 1, 2021
The document proposed large-scale electoral and judiciary reforms and obliged the ruling party to accept the holding of repeat parliamentary elections if it received less than 43 per cent of votes in the October 2 municipal elections.
The UNM refused to join the agreement because it disapproved of a stipulation in it which offered amnesty to individuals convicted for violence during the June 2019 protests in Tbilisi, which were sparked by the presence of Russian legislators in the Georgian parliament.
Current head of the UNM Nika Melia is also charged with violence during the protests.
The UNM was against the release of law enforcers who were convicted for abuse of authority during the June 19 rally dispersal in central Tbilisi.
100 days after signing the April 19 Agreement, majority of Georgian opposition MPs and parties refused to sign it, declined to work to fulfill it, and voted against it.
— Georgian Dream (@GeorgianDream41) July 28, 2021
Therefore, Georgian Dream declares the Agreement void, but continues to adhere to its provisions in principle. pic.twitter.com/pEHuLN3T6r
Now the UNM says that they ‘stand above the stipulation’ because the country’s European course is at a serious risk under GD leadership.’
The UNM believes that despite the GD’s backing out of the EU-mediated agreement the ruling party will have to accept repeat parliamentary elections 'because they will receive less than 43 per cent of votes in the upcoming elections.’
The GD has called the UNM’s decision ‘funny and not serious.’
The UNM was late to enter the parliament and was also late to sign the EU-mediated agreement,” said the GD MPs.
They stated that the party created ‘artificial tension’ in the country following the October 2020 elections and that it is the GD which ‘has made the country’s Euro-Atlantic course irreversible.’
The ruling Georgian Dream party has annulled its signatory status to the April 19 EU-mediated agreement which resolved a six-month political crisis in the country following the 2020 parliamentary elections and proposed large-scale electoral and judiciary reforms.Head of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze stated earlier today that the agreement initiated by the European Council President Charles Michel ‘had completed its mission’ and accused opposition parties of non-fulfilment of the agreement.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party MPs attended their first session in the 10th convocation of the state legislature earlier today after a six-month political standoff.
The UNM announced it would be taking up its mandates in parliament late yesterday, after a six-month political standoff, saying that the reason they declined to sign the EU-mediated agreement is that ‘it includes several notes which are unacceptable for us.’ The embassies said in a joint statement that the agreement proposed by the European Council President Charles Michel back in April 2021, which was signed by six Georgian political parties and individual MPs, contains topics which are crucial for the country’s further democratic development.
Opposition MPs who have signed the EU-mediated agreement with the ruling Georgian Dream party earlier this month have entered parliament earlier today.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has welcomed the largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party’s decision to sign the EU-mediated agreement and stated that ‘it is a good sign for strengthening Georgia’s path forward.’
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has stated that the decision of the largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), to sign the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement after more than four months since the document was signed by other parties ‘is a farce and lie.’ He said that the ruling party had waited for the UNM to join the agreement for 100 days and other opposition parties to fulfil the stipulations of the document which offered large-scale electoral and judiciary reforms.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated it is unclear for her and the public why the Georgian Dream government has refused to take the second tranche of the EU’s 150 million euro loan which should have been addressed to decrease 'the social and human damage that COVID has done to our population'.
US Senator Jim Risch and Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Gerry Connolly have welcomed the decision of Georgia's largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), to sign the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement after several months of refusing to do so. However, Risch was cited by Voice of America as saying that the UNM’s decision is ‘at least belated’ and that the party’s more than four-month hesitation encouraged the ruling Georgia Dream (GD) to withdraw from the agreement in July of this year.
Civil activists are protesting the adoption of an amnesty bill by the Georgian parliament stipulated by the April 19 EU-mediated agreement for the June 2019 protests that were sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament. Georgian parliament adopted the bill earlier today with 79 votes in favour and 15 votes against it.
MEP Marina Kaljurand has stated that Georgian political parties should accept the results of the upcoming municipal elections if the OSCE/ODIHR recognises the legitimacy of the race. In an interview with the Georgian bureau of Voice of America (VOA), Kaljurand also said that the European Parliament expects ‘free, fair and open elections’ to be held in Georgia on October 2.
European Council President Charles Michel has commended all Georgian citizens who participated in local municipal elections on October 2 and called on the country to focus on ‘in-depth structural reforms.’ “Essential that the country's focus now return to in-depth structural reforms, as set out in the 19 April Agreement, notably in the rule of law and judicial spheres,” Charles Michel stated.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) says that if the Georgian parliament approves ‘simplified procedures’ for the election of the head of the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) and its members it will be ‘another deviation’ from the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell has said that the April 19 EU-mediated agreement remains a "roadmap" for Georgia's European integration, pointing out that the agreement had helped to end a "toxic boycott of the Parliament" after the 2020 elections.
Four Georgian-based non-governmental organisations that reviewed the implementation of the European Union-mediated April 19 agreement between the Georgian government and opposition, which put an end to six months of political tension over the country’s October 2020 parliamentary elections, say ambitious electoral reform was partly carried out in the country while pointing out that the fulfilment of judicial reforms almost failed.