Saakashvili on UNM`s decision to support constitutional amendments
20.03.13 14:06
United National Movement parliamentary minority group arrived at a decision to support the constitutional amendments on presidential powers at the closed-door meeting in Tskaltubo late Tuesday night.
President Saakashvili arrived in Tskaltubo to participate in the meeting, after which he assessed the UNM`s decision and explained certain reasons why the minority group made that kind of decision.
"In recent months, the the opposition members had been facing such pressure, which I can`t remind to have taken place in Georgia`s contemporary parliamentary history - during the last 20 years. MPs had been threatened and promised material rewards; some of them were threatened that their sons would be detained and in some cases these threats were fulfilled’, he said. "Some people were won over, and I was not surprised, because not everyone is able to resist the pressure. However, the main core of the United National Movement has remained unchanged".
"I think it is a clear proposal. Let’s make it clear how many votes they lack and after that the National Movement will give them necessary votes. We presume they lack 6-7 votes. They could not collect enough votes despite the use of all methods of pressure", he said.
‘We will support these changes and the National Movement will prove that it is a worthy opposition. I call on the majority to be as constructive as we are’, the President said.
According to him, the government had been exerting different kinds of pressures on the parliamentary minority with regard to the constitutional changes.
The National Movement is ready to support constitutional changes only if a test vote will be held in advance, Davit Bakradze, the leader of the parliamentary majority, said yesterday. According to him, the test vote should show how many votes they need. ‘After that, we will give them exactly as many votes as they need’, he said.
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