Ruling party head calls on politicians “to refrain from speculations”, citing a "political decision" to recall transparency bill

“It [adoption of the draft law] was not worth putting even one person's life and health at risk [at protest rallies], [...] there were specific expectations regarding certain risks [of protesters safety] and taking all these into consideration, we took the decision [to retract the bill]”, the GD official noted. Photo via Georgian Dream press office

Agenda.ge, 09 Mar 2023 - 20:58, Tbilisi,Georgia

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday called on domestic opposition “to refrain from speculations”, stressing a “political decision” made by the party to withdraw the bill on transparency of foreign influence from the Parliament, could not be revised “under any circumstances”.

In his interview with the media, Kobakhidze explained the withdrawal of the bill, which had passed its first hearing at the Parliament on Tuesday, was a “technical matter”, pointing out that the ruling party would never initiate a “Russian law” [as called by opposition and certain part of the public] in Georgia.

It [adoption of the draft law] was not worth putting even one person's life and health at risk [at protest rallies], [...] there were specific expectations regarding certain risks [of protesters safety] and taking all these into consideration, we took the decision [to retract the bill]”, the GD official noted.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, earlier today confirmed that the bill [which involved the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “agents of foreign influence” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad] would fail at the second hearing as prescribed by procedures for the withdrawal legislation. 

The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili also sent a letter to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for withdrawal of the bill from the body’s consideration [Georgian authorities had sent the draft law to the Commission for its opinion].

The ruling party today announced it was “unconditionally” withdrawing the controversial bill, which had been proposed by the People's Power movement and met with a backlash by domestic opposition, civil sector and diplomatic representations in the country, as well as public rallies outside the legislative body.