Georgian Dream will soon be left alone in the working groups

When our party was invited to the working group, why didn’t they have a similar question for us? Why didn’t they demand the same from us? Didn’t we go to these actions? – this is how Bacho Dolidze, a member of the United National Movement, responded to the statement of the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili that the non-governmental organization Fair Elections (ISFED) should tell the society whether it still puts forward an ultimatum, or whether they withdraw their demands, and if they take it off, they can fully participate in the working groups of the parliament.

According to Dolidze, civil organizations, NGOs and ordinary citizens protested the position of the Georgian Dream regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war during the June 24 protests.

“This is an irresponsible decision. Mainly you need to focus on the fulfillment of 12 points in order to get the status of a candidate. One of the priorities in the recommendations of the European Commission is the involvement of NGOs, and at this time, all of a sudden, they invent that, it turns out, someone should apologize, give some explanations…,” Dolidze said.

According to him, Georgian Dream will remain alone in the parliamentary working group, since its policy is aimed at ensuring that nothing changes.

“Georgian Dream’s policy is to ensure that nothing changes, that the same autocratic regime remains, and that they determine the criteria for who should participate in the working groups. If you listen to the statements of those parties that have joined these groups, they directly say that there is nothing going on there except water pounding. Based on this, I can predict that very soon Georgian Dream will remain alone in these working groups and will eventually be rejected by society, since society has already made a choice in favor of Europe and Georgian Dream remains the only one in the Russian vector. This allows me to say that the Georgian Dream will remain alone,” Dolledze said.

It should be reminded that according to the statement of the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, the non-governmental organization “Fair Elections” (ISFED) must answer the society whether it still puts forward an ultimatum that it should have the right of veto and a decisive vote when recruiting the government, or whether they withdraw your requirements.

“If they no longer share this position and withdraw their demand, then, of course, they can fully participate in the working group,” the chairman of the parliament said.

According to him, in the context of the ISFED ultimatum, it will be difficult to talk about constructive cooperation.

For reference, a number of non-governmental organizations temporarily suspend participation in all working groups created on the initiative of the ruling party. This is stated in a statement signed by the Freedom of Information Development Institute, the Democracy Research Institute (DRI), the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and the Center for Social Justice.

According to the statement, the reason for this decision is the fact that the “Fair Elections” were not allowed to participate in the working group to revise the Electoral Code.