Georgia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, Tea Tsulukiani said on Monday that “the opposition is using topics that are close to absurd.”

As she stated, “after the March 8 agreement a written document was published, which does not mention the release of any prisoner.”

“The absence of political prisoners in Georgia is beyond doubt, and therefore, no agreement could be reached on non-existent political prisoners. Today the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament made a statement; he asked our friends, partners, ambassadors involving in the negotiation process to confirm the reality that interference in activities of the judicial and prosecuting bodies, as well as interfering in the activities of independent institution – such as the president institution, when it comes to any kind of request for pardon of a prisoner, was not and could not be the subject of negotiations. It is very unfortunate that the unanimity that exists within the Georgian Dream team today to make our electoral system more proportionate, and for that the ruling team is doing everything possible, is not supported by the radical opposition. They using topics that are close to absurd while speaking about the release of so called political prisoners,” Tsulukiani said.

On March 8 the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition reached a consensus over electoral system reform ahead of crucial 2020 parliamentary polls. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding which puts forward proposed draft amendment to the Constitution defining the rules for the upcoming elections. As stated in the document, the Parliament shall consist of 120 members elected through the proportional party lists and 30 members elected through majoritarian system (single mandate constituencies). The electoral threshold for proportional elections will be fixed at 1% of the votes. According to the opposition, one of the main conditions for the implementation of the agreement is “the release of political prisoners”, while government officials deny the existence of such a record in the document.