MP Davit Matikashvili: Legal mechanisms for banning parties are fully transparent; claims of a slide towards dictatorship are an outright lie

“The historic process at the Constitutional Court is continuing. Yesterday we watched the United National Movement set a new record for brazen lies. It was an insult to the public to claim that the UNM had committed no crimes against its own country and its own people,” said MP Davit Matikashvili, chair of Parliament’s Procedural Issues Committee.

He said a democratic process of banning parties is underway.

“This process has been criticised both from abroad, by the Eurobureaucracy, and by the fifth column. Let me remind the public that 22 political parties have been banned in Ukraine over the past three years. Did anyone hear any protest? Did anyone in the Eurocracy say a word? Over the past three years, Moldova has banned eight political parties. Did anyone react to that? Over recent decades, some 150 political parties have been banned in Europe, including in Germany and Spain. Did anyone complain about democratic backsliding? No, because this is a procedure within the bounds of constitutionality that bans parties directed against the Constitution and the state order. When Georgia takes a substantial step in building democracy and carries out the legal process on this issue completely transparently, in full view of the whole world, through court hearings and deliberation, some forces call it a step towards dictatorship. That is a barefaced lie, and it shows once again that these anti-Georgian forces want to have subordinates in Georgia so they can control events,” Matikashvili said.