Georgia temporarily suspended participation in PACE after the adoption of a resolution against it
Georgia suspended its work in PACE due to the adopted resolution, which contains sanctions and demands for early elections. This was stated by the head of the Georgian delegation Teja Tsulukiani, informs NEWSGEORGIA.
The Assembly confirmed the powers of the Georgian delegation, but with restrictions, including the demand to hold new parliamentary elections and to release “all political prisoners” before the April session.
Tsulukiani called the terms of the resolution “unacceptable, unfair and unfounded.” According to her, the decision to stop working in PACE was unanimously adopted by the members of the parliamentary delegation from “Georgian Dream”.
She emphasized that Georgia will resume participation in PACE only after changing the “unfair attitude” towards the country and ending “blackmail”, but remains a member of the Council of Europe.
As Tsulukiani stated, PACE’s demand for new elections “violates the sovereignty of Georgia and ignores the will of more than 1,120,000 voters (who voted for the “Georgian Dream” and is categorically unacceptable”).
“Accepting this reservation on our part would be tantamount to betraying our electorate and, therefore, the vast majority of our society… On the basis of the above, we, the members of the delegation of the Georgian Parliament in Strasbourg, are suspending our work in PACE as of today,” she declared.
The resolution was supported by 114 members of the assembly, 13 spoke against it, and seven abstained.
“We, members of the delegation of the Parliament of Georgia, discussed this issue in Strasbourg and Tbilisi, and by the joint decision of the Georgian Dream team, despite the fact that our powers have been approved, we are suspending work in the Parliamentary Assembly from today.” – said the Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Teja Tsulukiani.
