Parliament of Georgia - History

History

Slightly predating the Magna Carta in the United Kingdom, an idea of limiting the royal power and creating a parliamentary-type body of government was conceived among the aristocrats and citizens in the 12th century Kingdom of Georgia, during the reign of Queen Tamar, the first Georgian female monarch.

In the view Queen Tamar's oppositionists and their leader, Qutlu Arslan (a Georgian Simon de Montfort), the first Georgian Parliament was to be formed of two "Chambers": a) Darbazi – or assembly of aristocrats and influential citizens who would meet from time to time to take decisions on the processes occurring in the country, the implementation of these decisions devolving on the monarch b) Karavi – a body in permanent session between the meetings of the Darbazi. The confrontation ended in the victory of the supporters of unlimited royal power. Qutlu Arslan was arrested on the Queen’s order.

Subsequently, it was only in 1906 that the Georgians were afforded the opportunity of sending their representatives to a Parliamentary body of Government, to the Second State Duma (from 1801 Georgia had been incorporated in the Russian Empire). Georgian deputies to the Duma were Noe Zhordania (later the President of independent Georgia in 1918-21), Ilia Chavchavadze (founder of the Georgian National Movement), Irakli Tsereteli (leader of the Social-Democratic Faction in the Second Duma, later Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia’s Provisional Government), Karlo Chkheidze (leader of the Menshevik Faction in the Fourth State Duma, Chairman of the first convocation of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in 1917, and Chairman of the Trans-Caucasian Seym in 1918), and others.

In 1918 the first Georgian National Parliament was founded in the already independent Georgia. In 1921 the Parliament adopted the first Georgian Constitution. However, shortly after the adoption of the Constitution, Georgia was occupied by the Bolshevik Red Army. This was followed by a gap of 69 years in the Parliamentary Government in Georgian history. The construction of the parliament building started in 1938 and completed in 1953, when Georgia was still a part of Soviet Union. It was designed by architects Victor Kokorin and Giorgi Lezhava.

The first multiparty Elections in the Soviet Union were held in Georgia on October 28, 1990. The elected Supreme Soviet (the name of the simulated and pseudo-Parliament in the former Soviet Union) proclaimed the independence of Georgia). On May 26, 1991 Georgia’s population elected the Chairman of the Supreme Council Zviad Gamsakhurdia as President of the country.

The tension between the ruling and opposition parties gradually intensified, which in 1991-92 developed into an armed conflict. The President left the country, the Supreme Soviet ceased to function and power was taken over by the Military Council.

In 1992, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Union Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia, assuming Chairmanship of the Military Council which was reconstituted into a State Security Council. The State Council restored Georgia’s Constitution of 1921, announcing August 4, 1992 as the day of parliamentary elections.

In 1995, the newly elected Parliament adopted a new Constitution. Georgia now has a semi-presidential system with a unicameral parliament. In 2011 Mikheil Saakashvili the president of Georgia signed the amendment of constitution which located the parliament in the western city of Kutaisi.

On 26 May 2012, Saakashvili inaugurated the new Parliament building in Kutaisi. This was done in an effort to decentralise power and shift some political control closer to Abkhazia, although it has been criticised as marginalising the legislature, and also for the demolition of a Soviet War Memorial formerly at the new building's location.