Parliament Speaker: demand for technical Government “nothing but desire to seize power”

The Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said the demand of the domestic opposition for formation of a technical Government was “nothing but a desire to seize power by bypassing democratic procedures”. 

Responding to the demands for establishment of the form of governance that would ensure fulfilment of the European Union’s recommendations for Georgia, Papuashvili said “democracy works through elections”, and called for “respect [of] the will of the Georgian people” who elected the Georgian Dream party as the majority in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

“There are political groups or some non-governmental organisations that do not want the Georgian Dream to be in power, but democracy does not work that way. Democracy works through elections,” he noted.

“What the Georgian people decide in elections, everyone should follow - be it a political party, a non-governmental organisation, the media, an activist, and so on”, the Parliament Speaker said in his comments. 

In a large public protest in Tbilisi on June 24, the civic movement Shame demanded resignation of the Government until July 3 and establishment of a so-called technical Government that would ensure fulfilment of the recommendations issued by the European Council for Georgia for granting the country the EU membership candidate status before January 2023.