Parliament suspends mandate for ruling party MP who refused to back foreign agents bill

The Georgian Parliament on Thursday terminated the mandate for David Sergeenko, a ruling Georgian Dream party MP, who earlier this year refused to back the foreign transparency bill, labelled as a “Russian law” by domestic opposition and civil groups and the country’s foreign partners. 

 

The Parliament claimed Sergeenko, who earlier served as the country’s Health Minister, had himself requested the early termination of his authority as an MP. 

 

The Georgian Parliament in March rejected the bill proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party that called for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “agents of foreign influence” if they obtained more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

 

Those opposing the bill claimed it aimed to exercise pressure on “pro-Western” companies and media outlets in the country critical to the Government. 

 

The legal piece was rejected after large-scale rallies in Tbilisi.