Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has announced that the first session of the new parliament will be held on Monday, starting at 12:00.
In a briefing on Friday, Papuashvili outlined the procedures for the first day of the session. He confirmed that the Central Election Commission (CEC) has prepared the temporary mandates for the newly elected members, who will need to collect these from the CEC.
The registration of members will begin at 11:00 a.m. on November 25, with members being registered at the session hall before the official commencement of the session. The session will be chaired by Lado Kakhadze, the oldest member of parliament.
The agenda for the session will include several key items. First, CEC Chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili will present a report on the election results. Following this, the credentials of the elected members will be certified. A break will then follow, during which parliamentary factions will be formed. The session will resume with the nomination and election of candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions, followed by another break for committee formations. The final item on the agenda will be the election of committee chairmen.
On November 21, Majority Leader Mamuka Mdinaradze confirmed that the incumbent Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, will again be nominated for the position of Speaker. Papuashvili also provided an overview of the parliament’s agenda for the first week of its session. This will include setting the date for the election of the new president, which will be determined by parliament. The first week will also focus on expressing confidence in the new government and approving its program.
Papuashvili expects that by the end of the week, both the parliament and the government will be fully operational.
The current President, Salome Zourabichvili, whose term ends this year, will be replaced by a president elected by an electoral college, rather than through direct elections. The college will comprise 300 members, including the 150 members of parliament, 20 members of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, 21 members of the Supreme Council of Adjara, and 109 members of municipal councils.
The CEC had previously concluded that the Georgian Dream party secured almost 54% of the vote in the October 26 elections, gaining 89 seats in the new parliament. However, the President, along with opposition parties, has rejected the election results and filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, citing violations of electoral principles. The international community has called for an objective investigation into the disputed results to address “serious suspicions” of electoral fraud.
