Ruling party proposes consultations with opposition over new public defender

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the parliament, on Monday proposed consultations with opposition groups for an agreement on a joint candidate for the position of the new public defender. 

Mdinaradze has invited opposition lawmakers for talks to select a “jointly acceptable” candidate from 19 nominees starting on Tuesday, after the ruling party conceded the opportunity of nominating candidates to the opposition.

• Top candidate for public defender has “positive expectations”, says process “transparent”

Pointing to the importance of selecting an “unbiased” ombudsperson - as part of the conditions for the European Union membership candidate status for Georgia - Mdinaradze claimed his party was ready to make an agreement with the opposition over the position “even if there is one percent of theoretical chance” for it.

He also said GD would not voice its support for any of the candidates to prevent “destructive steps” by the “radical wing” of the opposition, and would wait for the opposition’s move and its statements on favourable candidates. 

The approval of the new public defender requires at least 90 votes in the 150-member parliament. Photo: parliament press office. 

If we express our support to any of the candidates now, the radical part of the opposition would be expected to reject the nominee with a single motivation - to irritate us”, Mdinaradze said. 

The vice parliament speaker from the ruling party, Gia Volski, also said GD would “remain silent” over the candidates and would support all of the nominees presented until the opposition announced the names of its preferred candidates.

Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said the developments related to the selection of the new public defender had been “very transparent” until now with “no question marks”, and noted the next stage involved reaching a consensus between political groups on a jointly acceptable nominee. 

The new public defender should be acceptable to everyone. The opposition should not have an illusion that it will exert any pressure on the ruling party to push its desirable candidate”,  Papuashvili said. 

The approval of the new public defender requires at least 90 votes in the 150-member parliament, which means the ruling party - which currently has 75 MPs - and the opposition would need to cooperate to select the figure, with the position becoming vacant next month. 

Lawmakers have already heard from the candidates - nominated by domestic non-governmental organisations and other groups before their evaluation by a parliamentary working group created in September - about their visions for the position.