A senior ruling party lawmaker, Giorgi Gabashvili, said President Saakashvili’s announcement that the Parliament will be relocated to Kutaisi starting from May next year “has nothing to do with holding of early parliamentary elections.” 

“The parliamentary elections will be held as scheduled – autumn of next year,” MP Gabashvili told Civil.ge on November 7. 

Constitutional amendment passed by the Parliament on July 1 says that the relocation of Parliament from the capital city Tbilisi to Kutaisi will take place after the election of new Parliament; according to the constitution the next parliamentary elections are scheduled for October, 2012. This provision of the constitution will have to be amended to pave the way for the sitting Parliament’s relocation to Kutaisi. But MP Gabashvili said no constitutional amendment was either planned.

“If the construction of new Parliament building in Kutaisi is completed by May 26 and if we are ready for that [relocation], then steps will be made to find out forms how to hold the first session in Kutaisi; it might be a single, presentational session [in the new building],” MP Gabashvili said.

President Saakashvili, however, made it clear in his November 7 that it won’t be “just one session.”

“We have all agreed that on May 26 the Parliament will hold its first session in Kutaisi; the Parliament will be relocated to Kutaisi from May 26; not just one session [will be held in Kutaisi on May 26], the Parliament will be ready to hold its sittings in Kutaisi,” Saakashvili said.