Street Traders Requesting Withdrawal of Amendments from the Code of Administrative Offences

Parliamentary faction Ertoba Samartlianobisatvis and street traders are requesting withdrawal of amendments from the Code of Administrative Offences.

The corresponding amendments refer to changes according to which the state approach to street traders has been become stricter. The member of the faction Dimitri Lortkipanidze met with the representatives of League of Street Traders and met with their supporter member of Conservative Party Lasha Chkhartishvili in the Parliament. According to him, the barbarian amendments are made to the law which will be used as an effective instrument to discriminate opponents.

“According to one of the amendments, one of the facts counted as disobedience to police was considered a fact when the street trader cannot present the ID card. This will become grounds for police officials to draw out the protocol of administrative offence, blame the street trader in the administrative disobedience and transfer the case to court. This article envisages both the financial sanction and 90-day administrative imprisonment. This is unimaginable discriminative approach as the street trader might really not have an ID card in a concrete moment,” – Dimitri Lortkipanidze noted. According to him, Ertoba Samartlianobisatvis will do everything to withdraw the relevant legislative initiative.

The street traders and Lasha Chkhartishvili have same request. As Lasha Chkhartishvili noted he will fight till the end so that Parliament adopts law for civilized street trading and not for the persecution of street traders.

Chkhartishvili underlined the fact that there is no act regulating street trading. It should be adopted by Tbilisi City Council. In this case, if the local government body puts this issue in the agenda, Ertoba Samartlianobisatvis will be ready to attend the session and express readiness to support the project.

The Parliament will hear the project of amendments to the Administrative Code of Offence in an expedited way. The second voting is planned for September 30th session. However, the procedure failed due to absence of quorum.

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