Georgia’s new leadership seeks for quick changes in the constitution and introduction of the prime minister’s position; however details of the constitutional amendments remain unclear yet, as development of the draft still continues by the Justice Ministry.

President-elect Mikheil Saakashvili said that the introduction of the cabinet of ministers with the Prime Minister’s position would help “to establish a more flexible system of governance.” He said that State Minister Zurab Zhvania will be nominated as the Prime Minster.

Mikheil Saakashvili proposed that the prime minister should be responsible for the economic issues, while the president will basically focus on the political trends in the country. However, political analysts and the political parties, which are in the opposition to the current authorities, can only speculate regarding the anticipated constitutional amendments as no details of the changes are known yet.

The only thing that heats up debates right now is the dates of introduction of the constitutional changes. The new leadership wants the acting parliament to discuss amendments.

“I do not see any problems regarding discussion of the changes by the acting parliament,” Mikheil Saakashvili told the press conference on January 10.

However, some representatives of the civil society, as well as the opposition, prefer the amendments to be discussed by the new parliament, elected on March 28.

“I think quick changes in the constitution would not be right. At first the parliamentary elections should be held and after the constitutional amendments should be introduced,” Levan Ramishvili of Liberty Institute told Civil Georgia.

“Such important amendments need to be thoroughly discussed and hasty decision, especially by the acting parliament, which I think is not very effective, should be ruled out,” MP Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights opposition party told Civil Georgia.

She said that the New Right party supports only minor amendments to the constitution. “We prefer the current system of governance, however it would be better if the President’s power will be more balanced by the Parliament,” Pikria Chikhradze added.

Experts warn the authorities that the constitutional amendments should not be made only for particular political figures. The protest rallies in Georgia, which resulted in ouster of President Shevardnadze last November, were led by Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been overwhelmingly elected as a president, Zurab Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze, who after the inauguration of the new president will return on Parliamentary Chairperson’s position. Many observers say that existence of triumvirate of leaders caused necessity to redistribute power among these three figures.

“With introduction of the prime minister’s position, the new authorities aim at satisfaction of Zurab Zhvania’s political ambitions,” Gubaz Sanikidze of the Traditionalists opposition party says.

Influential legal expert Davit Usupashvili says that the vice-president’s post also might be introduced. “It does not matter how it will be called – vice-president, state minister or prime minister – this will be a position to which the President might delegate some of its authority in case of absence of the President,” Davit Usupashvili told Civil Georgia.

However, this proposal seems to be absolutely unacceptable for the President-elect. “Post of the vice-president is for the retired politicians. We need something more effective and flexible,” Mikheil Saakashvili says.

Before the bloodless revolution many experts and politicians were pushing the issue of parliamentarian system of governance in Georgia. Still many of them support the idea of the parliamentarian state; however they think that in the current situation it would be impossible to discuss the proposal.

“When we have a president, who was elected with 97% of votes, it would be absolutely impossible to talk about the parliamentary system of governance. What we need is amendments, which would increase the power of the Parliament in order to balance the President’s authority. In this case I do not clearly understand what will be the prime minister’s role,” Ghia Nodia of the think-tank NGO Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, told Civil Georgia.

“We were always supporting the parliamentary system of governance. But after the presidential elections it would be absolutely impossible to discuss this proposal,” Davit Berdzenishvili, who is ally of Saakashvili and the leader of the Republican Party, told Civil Georgia.
 
It is expected that the draft will be submitted to the Parliament after the inauguration of the new President. Some political analysts believe that the distribution of authorities between President and the prime minister might reveal some hidden tensions between Mikheil Saakashvili and Zurab Zhvania.

In other words changes in constitution mean distribution of authorities between Zhvania and Saakashvili and such a decision may also question the present harmonious relations among Georgian leaders.