President’s Authority to Grant Citizenship Might Be Restricted

Interpresnews 

Authority of the president – to grant citizenship of Georgia to person without having observed the requirements of the law – might be restricted. Parliamentary majority member MP Vakhtang Khmaladze spoke about the necessity of introduction relevant amendments to the Law of Georgia on Citizenship at the press-conference. The MP thinks it is necessary to restrict this discretive authority of the president by the law.  

MP Khmaladze said, the Constitution of Georgia and Law on Citizenship of Georgia regulates the conditions which shall be met by the person to receive citizenship by the President. The MP said the conditions are clearly stated in the law but there is a provision which “crosses almost everything that is clearly regulated.”

“This provision states that in exceptional cases, at the initiative of the President of Georgia, citizenship of Georgia shall be granted to a foreign citizen without observance of the procedure set by this Law. So, all restricting factors set by the law are disregarded. Of course it shall be amended. This norm was applied after Mikheil Saakashvili granted citizenship to several hundred persons without any grounds,” Khmaladze said.

When speaking on discretive powers of the President, Khmaladze said that the law shall set boundaries for grating pardon to prisoners by the president. He said, pardoning of prisoners is human act but it cannot oppose public interests and similar decisions shall not be made based on the opinions of only one person.