Has constitutional reform failed in Georgia?

Today the Georgian State Constitutional Commission' term will expire. It was formed on October 4, 2013 to prepare the draft of the updated basic law of the country.

The commission is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament David Usupashvili. It includes MPs Shalva Shavgulidze, Manana Kobakhidze, Eka Beselia, Eliso Chapidze, Zacharias Kutsnashvili, as well as the Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani.

The Commission has worked for almost two and a half years, but it did not submit any amendments to the Constitution.

In this regard, Georgia's President's aide Kakha Kozhoridze has criticized its activities. According to him, the Commission has failed and the funds allocated for the financing of its work were wasted.

"Of course, not one member of the Commission can escape responsibility. However, I believe that the ruling coalition should bear the primary responsibility in this process. A pretty impressive amount of money has been spent for those two years. It is approximately 300 thousand laris (about $121 thousand)," Sputnik Georgia cited him as saying.

A member of the United National Movement David Bakradze also criticized the commission. "It is very difficult to imagine how it is possible to reach a compromise and consensus on the broad constitutional reform, when Georgian Dream hinders our major and urgent constitutional changes - the changes in the electoral reform. That's why the work of the commission failed," he said.

The head of the Center for Global Studies, Nana Devdariani, said in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that "the Georgian Dream coalition does not have a constitutional majority in the parliament." "And almost all attempts to make some changes are always blocked by the so-called opposition, that is, the former ruling party the United National Movement. They cannot solve even a question, which should not cause any issues, such as the transfer of the Parliament back to Tbilisi from Kutaisi, because it's a matter of principle for the National Movement, since it was Saakashvili's initiative," she said.

"In addition, there are also purely subjective reasons. The Commission hasn't even held a meeting. At least, it would be possible to hold a meeting and begin to prepare some projects. And now there's only a few months left before the next elections, so I do not suppose that there will be any changes," Nana Devdariani believes.

The Georgian political scientist Vakhtang Maisaya also pointed to the lack of a constitutional majority of the ruling coalition, which objectively prevents amendments to the basic law of the country. In addition, he agreed with Kaha Kozhohidze. "The Constitutional Commission has worked very effectively. It didn't determine what changes should be made to the Constitution, that is, the most important questions were not properly formulated. The commission was not motivated. In addition, there was no necessary political will on the part of the ruling elite, the ruling coalition," the analyst believes.

In this regard, he believes that it is already possible to give constitutional reform up as hopeless. "I do not think that the next Parliament will positively affect the situation. So I would say that constitutional reform is far into the future," Vakhtang Maisaya concluded.