On September 23rd the Parliament of Georgia adopted (with 123 members voting for, 4 against and 23 abstentions) a new version of the country's Constitution. According to the new version, Georgia is switching from a presidential to a semi-presidential Republic, where the three branches of power will be involved in very complicated relations. In this new system, the President is elected by all citizens, but cannot form a Government, which is formed by the largest parliamentary faction.
The new system is similar to the one that exists in France. Before 2004, Georgia was a presidential republic with a model the same as in the USA, where the president is the head of the government by himself. After the Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili and Nino Burjanadze announced that the country needs a new political system in order to prevent a revival of "Shevarnadze's stagnation", So the country switched to the type of republic common to all the countries of the former USSR, in which the President controls the whole of political life and can form a government and the parliament is a rather weak body.
The European countries appreciate the new reform, as their officials believe that it will secure democracy in the country and strengthen the multi-party system. Opponents worry that the reform will help President Saakashvili, whose term finishes in 2013, to stay in power.
However, these opponents do not understand that the president's team is not a cohort of faceless bureaucrats, but a cohesive team of young and daring politicians, who are ready to implement the same policy after Saakshvili's retirement.
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, Exclusively to VK.
