Ruling party official highlights state sovereignty amid controversy of opposition-proposed vetting for judiciary

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed there were unspecified “forces willing to subjugate” the country’s judiciary, in remarks over the proposal by the opposition United National Movement party for introduction of foreign vetting of judges of the domestic judiciary.

In comments on the UNM call for judges to be screened by diplomatic offices represented in Georgia, Kaladze said there was a “stark difference” between the current domestic judiciary and the one that had operated under the UNM Government between 2003-2012.

“To put it bluntly, there are forces that want to subjugate the courts, the judges to rule all of this. Not [the rule by] the constitution and Georgian citizens, but specifically [by] those individuals or organisations”, Kaladze claimed.

Of course, it is fundamentally important to preserve [our] sovereignty. Georgia is not a province or state of any country. We are an independent country, we have a constitution and everyone should respect our statehood and Georgian citizens”, he noted.

Irakli Garibashvili, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Sunday said the ruling team would “not allow anyone to interfere” in the country’s judicial system.

He said recent international ratings had “proved” the country’s court was “one of the best in Europe” and ranked ahead of European Union membership candidate countries and some member states of the bloc.