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Georgia Parliament
In 1993 some twenty-six parties and eleven factions held
seats in the new parliament, which continued to be called the
Supreme Soviet. The legislative branch's basic powers were
outlined in the Law on State Power, an interim law rescinding the
strict limits placed on legislative activity by Gamsakhurdia's
1991 constitution. Thus in 1993 the parliament had the power to
elect and dismiss the head of state by a two-thirds vote; to
nullify laws passed by local or national bodies if they
conflicted with national law; to decide questions of war and
peace; to reject any candidate for national office proposed by
the head of state; and, upon demand of one-fifth of the deputies,
to declare a vote of no confidence in the sitting cabinet.
Activity within the legislative body was prescribed by the
Temporary Regulation of the Georgian Parliament. The parliament
as a whole elected all administrative officials, including a
speaker and two deputy speakers. Seventeen specialized
commissions examined all bills in their respective fields. The
speaker had little power over commission chairs or over deputies
in general, and parliament suffered from an inefficient
structure, insufficient staff, and poor communications. The two
days per week allotted for legislative debate often did not allow
full consideration of bills.
The major parliamentary reform factions--the Democrats, the
Greens, the Liberals, the National Democrats, and the
Republicans--were not able to maintain a coalition to promote
reform legislation. Of that group, the National Democrats showed
the most internal discipline. Shevardnadze received support from
a large group of deputies from single-member districts, aligned
with Liberals and Democrats. His radical opposition, a
combination of several very small parties, was weakened by
disunity, but it frequently was able to obstruct debate. The
often disorderly parliamentary debates reduced support among the
Georgian public, to whom sessions were widely televised.
In November 1993, Shevardnadze was able to merge three small
parties with a breakaway faction of the Republicans to form a new
party, the Union of Citizens of Georgia, of which he became
chairman. This was a new step for the head of state, who
previously had refrained from political identification and had
relied on coalitions to support his policies. At the same time,
Shevardnadze also sought to include the entire loose
parliamentary coalition that had recently supported him, in a
concerted effort to normalize government after the Abkhazian
crisis abated.
Data as of March 1994
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