Parliament official: Opposition “fully responsible” for Public Defender election failure

The Georgian Parliament on Thursday failed to elect a new Public Defender, with none of the 19 candidates presented to the legislative body chosen for the position. Photo: Parliament of Georgia

Agenda.ge, 24 Dec 2022 - 16:02, Tbilisi,Georgia

Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights, on Saturday said the domestic opposition was “fully responsible” for the failure of the Public Defender election.

In his comments to the media, Sarjveladze said the ruling Georgian Dream party had conceded the opportunity of nominating a [Public Defender] candidate to the opposition, under the condition that they would present seven candidates for the position, which they did not fulfil and reneged on their “promise”.

The Committee Chair added that the opposition had refused to work with the ruling party on implementing the 12-point recommendations set by the European Union in June for granting Georgia the membership candidate status and stressed their “actions”, to fail the fulfilment of the 12-point conditions, had aimed to “obstruct” the ongoing implementation process.

The Georgian Parliament on Thursday failed to elect a new Public Defender, with none of the 19 candidates presented to the legislative body chosen for the position. 

Selection of an “unbiased” Public Defender is one of the 12 conditions [outlined by EU]. The approval of a new Public Defender will require at least 90 votes in the 150-member Parliament, which means the ruling party - which currently has 75 MPs - and the opposition need to cooperate for the selection.