News Georgia: A law was passed in Georgia prohibiting the activities of “anticonstitutional” politicians and parties

The Parliament of Georgia hastenedly examined and adopted in 3 readings a bill which would prohibit a broad ellipse of organization activities, political positions and participation in elections.

The amendments will include organization members considered anti-constitutional, as well as politicians ‘related to them’. According to the amendments, they will lose passive electoral rights – they will not be allowed to run for parliament or for local authorities. They will besides be forbidden to include leadership positions in constitutional bodies, to join another parties or to make political donations.

If a organization adopts a "forbidden" policy, criminal proceedings and fines will be initiated. If specified a individual becomes a ‘decision-maker’ in a fresh party, the group will be considered a ‘recipient’ of anti-constitutional forces and besides banned.

Those forced to complete their political activities will not be able to registry a fresh organization – the public registry will reject their applications.

The initiator of the amendments is the governing Georgian Dreams. The organization argues that changes are essential for the "protection of democracy" and "cleaning the political scene from a abroad agent".

"When our political scenery is freed from specified people, people who are truly state-thinking, for whom Georgia is their homeland, and not another state or alliance, will be able to deal with politics," stated Archil Gordulidze, president of Parliament's legal committee, presenting the bill.

The initiative has been widely criticised in the European Union and in the country. The Georgian Association of Young Lawyers (GYLA) stressed that "changes in a disproportionate and timeless manner restrict individual rights, which in the long word could lead to the failure of political pluralism". According to the organisation, the task is contrary to Georgia's constitution and global standards.

Georgian Dreams have long announced the ban on the United National Movement – the organization of erstwhile president Micheil Saakashvili – and its affiliated groups. The rulers returned to this subject after the October 4 general election. Now they are justifying their actions "failed to effort a coup" – this is how authorities find the riots that occurred during opposition protests erstwhile respective demonstrators attempted to enter the President's residence.

In the close future, Georgian Dreams is planning to apply to the Constitutional Court for the illegalisation of the United National Movement. The proposal is to be based on a study by the controversial parliamentary committee investigating possible crimes of erstwhile authorities, including issues related to the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, pressures on businessmen and cases of violent treatment of prisoners.

Source: newsgeorgia.ge

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