Georgian tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili’s coalition took control of parliament on Sunday after its shock election win this month as the legislature convened in a controversial new building in a provincial city.
“It will be the most balanced parliament Georgia has ever had,” Ivanishvili’s rival, President Mikheil Saakashvili, said as he opened the first session of parliament since his party’s election defeat on October 1. “Georgia has become a normal European democracy for which Europe’s doors will open,” he said at the parliament in the central city of Kutaisi.
Billionaire Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition has 85 seats in the 150-seat assembly after unexpectedly winning the polls which were praised by the ex-Soviet state’s Western allies as a step forward for democracy. Saakashvili’s defeated former ruling party, which had dominated Georgia since the 2003 “Rose Revolution”, takes the remaining 65 seats.
“We are not enemies, but political rivals… It is not a time for hatred, it is a time for debates and cooperation,” Saakashvili told his opponents in the new parliament after the bitterly-fought election. Ivanishvili has already been nominated as prime minister by Saakashvili, who will remain president for another year until his two-term mandate ends.The billionaire, whose nomination is set to be confirmed by parliament in the coming days, attended the opening session as a guest.
“We must do everything to avoid confrontation, we must do everything for cooperation,” Ivanishvili told journalists. As prime minister, he will gain wide-ranging new powers when the presidency’s role is reduced under constitutional changes that will come into force after Saakashvili steps down in 2013.
