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Parliament Rejects Bill on Electoral Amendments, Mps Leave GD Continued from Page 1 the Promise We Gave Our Citizens Two Principle.” a Matter of Principle

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Parliament Rejects Bill on Electoral Amendments, Mps Leave GD Continued from Page 1 the Promise We Gave Our Citizens Two Principle.” a Matter of Principle Issue no: 1203 • NOVEMBER 15 - 18, 2019 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... US Embassy to Fund the First FOCUS Phase of Conservation of ON THE 2020 Jvari Monastery ELECTIONS NEWS PAGE 2 As Parliament votes down Plugging into the World a proportional system, Georgia reacts PAGE 3,7 through the Black Sea POLITICS PAGE 4 Gakharia’s Foreign Trips Underscore the Importance of the Trilateral Format POLITICS PAGE 6 Statement by Bidzina Ivanishvili, Chairman of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia Political Union POLITICS PAGE 7 Black Sea Bulletin: Tourism in the Black Sea Region BUSINESS PAGE 8 TBC Bank Wins Multiple Awards for Private Banking Parliament Rejects Bill on Electoral SOCIETY PAGE 11 Festival Mandarinoba at Amendments, MPs Leave GD Castello Mare Hotel "A proportional election is an essential step BY ANA DUMBADZE for the democratic development of the country SOCIETY PAGE 12 and I hope that each Member of Parliament will fully share the responsibility assumed towards he Parliament of Georgia on Thurs- that democratic development and by each indi- We Must Unite! Patients day rejected the bill on constitu- vidual citizen when voting," PM Giorgi Gakha- tional amendments relating to the ria stated at this week's Executive Government with Multiple Sclerosis electoral system in the fi rst reading. Meeting. “We have already stated our position The 2020 parliamentary elections and I will repeat it again that a proportional Waiting for Funding Twill be held with a 3% barrier, blocs and a mixed election with a zero threshold was the kind will SOCIETY 12 system," Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze and decision of our political team; a response PAGE said after Thursday’s plenary session, adding to the urge for accelerated development of the that the Parliament had not supported the tran- democratic process in the country.” Hidden Treasures? – sition to a proportional system for the 2020 par- As a result of Thursday’s vote, several mem- liamentary elections. bers of the parliamentary majority, at time of Untranslated Tales of "The votes today were not enough. Accord- going to press Tamar Chugoshvili, Irina Pruidze, ingly, the decision was not approved by Parlia- Giorgi Mosidze, Dimitri Tskitishvili, Tamar Khu- Yesteryear ment, which means that the parliamentary elec- lordava and Sophio Katsarava, left the ruling tions will be held with a 3% barrier, blocs and a Georgian Dream party. CULTURE PAGE 15 mixed system. The vote results are available to Mariam Jashi, a member of the parliamentary the public,” Talakvadze noted. fi rst reading. majority also left the Georgian Dream. Her state- 141 MPs registered for the plenary session. 101 The bill, drafted by 93 lawmakers, envisages ment to the press is as follows: MPs, including opposition lawmakers, supported holding the parliamentary elections in 2020 “Almost three hours have passed since the vote. Special Offer for readers the bill on the transition to the proportional through a proportional system with a zero bar- I used this time thoughtfully to safeguard my electoral system. Three MPs voted against the rier and the admission of electoral alliances. decision from being emotional. I am leaving the of Georgia Today bill, though the required quorum was 113 votes, And yet the Prime Minister himself was all for majority of the Georgian Dream and accordingly, thus the MPs failed to approve the bill in the the proportional election. Continued on page 3 -15% off all Diet Plans! PAGE 7 GEORGIA TODAY 2 NEWS NOVEMBER 15 - 18, 2019 PM on Mikheil Chkhenkeli's Appointment as Education Minister Ministry of Education without wasting this direction. BY ANA DUMBADZE time," he noted. Mikheil Chkhenkeli was appointed The Head of Government pointed Georgia's Minister of Education on out that Chkhenkeli was involved in November 13, 2019. rime Minister of Georgia, both the preparation of the systemic He has been the Advisor to the Prime Giorgi Gakharia, has reform of education and at all stages Minister of Georgia in educational issues responded to Mikheil of its implementation and is fully aware to date and in 2017-2018 served the Min- Chkhenkeli's recent appoint- of what has been happening in the ister of Education and Science. Prior to ment as the Minister of Edu- Ministry of Education in recent years. that, he was Vice-Principal of Tbilisi Pcation, Science, Culture and Sport, In addition, Gakharia emphasized the State University. replacing Mikheil Batiashvili in the role. importance of vocational education Mikheil Chkhenkeli holds a PhD and "He will be able to continue the reforms and instructed the Minister of Educa- is a member of the Association of Pro- that are successfully ongoing in the tion to devote particular attention to fessors of US Universities. US Embassy to Fund the First Phase of Conservation of Jvari Monastery project will cover the fi rst phase of the BY NINI DAKHUNDARIDZE conservation cycle by carrying out a comprehensive study to identify, classify and map the extent of damage and dete- n November 12, the US rioration of the façade. Embassy in Tbilisi The main church 'Jvari of the Holy announced funding for a Cross' (586-605 A.D.) is Jvari Monastery’s project focused on the most important and valuable monument. conservation of damaged The Jvari Monastery complex is part of Ostones on the facades of the main church the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta, at Jvari Monastery. a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Funding for the project was made avail- The Ambassadors Fund for Cultural able by a grant through the Ambassador’s Preservation has provided fi nancial sup- Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP). port to more than 1000 cultural preser- The $100,000 project will be imple- vation projects in more than 125 countries mented by the George Chubinashvili through the contribution of nearly $74 National Research Center for Georgian million towards the preservation of cul- Art History and Heritage Preservation, tural heritage worldwide. In Georgia, with the help of various interdisciplinary the AFCP has funded 19 preservation teams, the US Embassy reports. This projects worth nearly $1,5 million. Image source: Wikipedia. GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 15 - 18, 2019 NEWS 3 International Reaction to Failure of Georgian Parliament to Pass Constitutional Amendments on Proportional Election System 3 Georgian “In the light of the clear consensus by despite support from opposition parties, BY GT TEAM all stakeholders on the need to introduce an insuffi cient number of Georgian Dream this system before the 2020 parliamen- parliamentarians supported the required Citizens Released tary elections, the failure of the amend- constitutional amendments in today’s he co-rapporteurs of the ments to pass is incomprehensible. This vote. We urge all Georgian stakeholders, Parliamentary Assembly is a step backwards,” added the co-rap- including the government, all political of the Council of Europe porteurs. parties, and civil society, to work coop- (PACE) for the monitoring They called on all political forces, and eratively in a calm and respectful man- from Tskhinvali of Georgia have expressed particularly the ruling majority, to explore ner to move forward in line with our Ttheir deep regret at the failure of the ways in which these amendments could shared commitment to strengthening Georgian Parliament to pass the con- still be passed before the coming elec- Georgia’s democracy. stitutional amendments required to tions. “We again stress the critical importance introduce a fully proportional election The US Embassy in Georgia noted that of the passage of electoral reform legis- system for the 2020 parliamentary elec- they had “welcomed the Georgian Dream lation that incorporates the recommen- tions. party’s stated intention to transition to dations of international and local observer “We deplore the lack of support for fully proportional parliamentary elec- organizations for addressing shortcom- these amendments. The introduction of tions in 2020” and stated they had con- ings noted in the 2017 and 2018 elections a proportional system has been called sidered it an important step in advancing in order for the next parliamentary elec- for by all stakeholders for more than a Georgia’s democratic development and tions to create a more level playing fi eld decade, and its introduction was long strengthening trust among political par- for advancing Georgia’s political plural- overdue,” said Titus Corlatean (Romania, ties. ism,” the US Embassy in Georgia con- SOC) and Claude Kern (France, ALDE). “We are disappointed, therefore, that cluded. Public Defender: We Must Act to Prevent Future Elections with Current System Russian control] for “illegally crossing BY BEKA ALEXISHVILI the border.” BY ANA DUMBADZE The "security committee of Tskhinvali" released a statement regarding the illegal hree Georgian citizens detention of the doctor yesterday, while oday's decision from Par- detained by occupational the man was kidnapped four days ago. liament is the decision to forces, Ramaz Zadishvili, Between 9 and 11 November, the occu- maintain an unfair system, David Mishelashvili and pation forces detained three Georgian Public Defender Nino Lom- Zurab Tukhashvili, have citizens for “illegally crossing the bor- jaria wrote on social media. Tbeen released from Tskhinvali. Accord- der,” Ramaz Zadishvili, David Mishe- T“Unfortunately, I am abroad and have ing to the Georgian State Security Ser- lashvili and Zurab Tukhashvili. to respond to the recent developments vice, all three of are currently on Tbilisi The hotline was activated by the Euro- from here. administered territory. pean Union Monitoring Mission and the "The only bright spot that gave me Famous Georgian physician and trau- negotiations are in progress regarding hope that the country would emerge matologist Vazha Gaprindashvili and the release of the illegally detained indi- from a permanent political crisis and three other citizens have been illegally viduals. The standard fi ne is 2,000 Rus- take real steps towards democratic devel- detained by Russian-controlled occupa- sian rubles (about €28 / $31 USD).
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