On October 4, Transparency International Georgia presented the assessment of the performance of the Parliament’s 8th convocation as part of its parliamentary monitoring program.
According to our assessment, the 8th convocation of the Parliament was more pluralistic than the previous convocation, which was reflected by a significant amount of oppositional parties. There were a lot of discussions on thematic issues during plenary sessions. The level of transparency and openness of the Parliament has considerably been improved, however there are still some steps to be taken in this regard. Interested stakeholders, including members of the society, had the opportunity to engage in parliamentary discussions and obtain information related to parliamentary processes.
Nevertheless, there were a number of challenges in the work of the parliament. The parliament did not effectively conduct parliamentary oversight over the executive. There were a number of drawbacks during the law-making process: there were still a number of cases when draft laws were approved through the accelerated procedure, as well as systematic delaying of entry into force of laws.
During the 8th convocation of the Parliament, there were a number of violation of ethical norms by the members of Parliament. The MPs did not duly fulfill their responsibilities, which is reflected by the number of absentees from plenary sessions, as well as the lack of any disciplinary sanctions in this regard.
231 plenary sessions were held during the 8th convocation of the Parliament. Amongst them, 62 extraordinary sessions. Due to lack of a quorum, 10 plenary sessions were not held (2 of them extraordinary).
Draft laws approved
1. The 8th convocation of the Parliament approved 1505 laws. From these:
2. The draft laws discussed by the Parliament:
3. The Presidential veto was used on 17 legislative packages during the 8th convocation of the Parliament:
From 27 October, 2013 till July 24, 2016, the President used the veto 20 times (on 4 legislative packages) after the presidential elections
4. The report also includes the assessment of the most important decisions made by the Constitutional Court on the laws approved by the Parliament, which relate to the striking down of laws and abolishing of norms approved by the 8th convocation of the Parliament. For example, the elimination of the norm related to secret surveillance, elimination of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land to foreigners, elimination of norm that strips the National Bank of its oversight function, etc
Information on the activities of each individual Member of the Parliament
The following MPs can be noted for their activities during the 8th convocation of the Parliament:
2. Passive MPs
Absences
The report was prepared with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
Here you can find information about your representatives in Parliament and the decisions they make on your behalf.