Parliament of Georgia

The Parliament of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს პარლამენტი, romanized: sakartvelos p'arlament'i) is the supreme national legislature of Georgia. It is a unicameral parliament, currently consisting of 150 members elected through fully proportional election. The current convocation of the Georgian Parliament is 11th.

All members of the Parliament are elected for four years on the basis of universal suffrage. The Constitution of Georgia grants the Parliament of Georgia a legislative power, which is partially devolved to the legislatures of the autonomous republics of Adjara and Abkhazia.

The idea of limiting royal power and creating a parliamentary-type body of government was conceived among the aristocrats and citizens in the 12th century Kingdom of Georgia, during the reign of Queen Tamar, the first Georgian female monarch.^{[citation needed]}

In the view of Queen Tamar's oppositionists and their leader, Qutlu Arslan, the first Georgian Parliament was to be formed of two "Chambers": a) Darbazi – or assembly of aristocrats and influential citizens who would meet from time to time to take decisions on the processes occurring in the country, the implementation of these decisions devolving on the monarch b) Karavi – a body in permanent session between the meetings of the Darbazi. The confrontation ended in the victory of the supporters of royal power. Qutlu Arslan was arrested on the Queen's order.^{[citation needed]} However, Queen Tamar did during her reign have a chamber of advisors, who could propose laws for the monarch however did not have a final say about laws and how the country should be governed.

Subsequently, it was only in 1906 that the Georgians were afforded the opportunity of sending their representatives to a parliamentary body of government, to the Second State Duma (from 1801 Georgia had been incorporated in the Russian Empire). Georgian deputies to the Duma were Noe Zhordania (later the Premier of independent Georgia in 1918–21), Ilia Chavchavadze (founder of the Georgian National Movement), Irakli Tsereteli (leader of the Social-Democratic Faction in the Second Duma, later Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia's Provisional Government), Karlo Chkheidze (leader of the Menshevik Faction in the Fourth State Duma, Chairman of the first convocation of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in 1917, and Chairman of the Transcaucasian Seim in 1918), and others.

In 1918 the first Georgian National Parliament was established in the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia. In 1921 the Parliament adopted the first Georgian Constitution. However, shortly after the adoption of the Constitution, Georgia was occupied by the Bolshevik Red Army. This was followed by a 69-year-long absence of independent parliamentary government in Georgian history. The construction of the current main parliament building, which was dedicated to the Supreme Soviet (Council) of the Georgian SSR, started in 1938 and completed in 1953, when Georgia was a part of the Soviet Union. It was designed by architects Viktor Kokorin and Giorgi Lezhava.

The first multiparty elections in the Georgian SSR were held on 28 October 1990. The elected members later proclaimed the independence of Georgia. On 26 May 1991 Georgia's population elected the Chairman of the Supreme Council Zviad Gamsakhurdia as President of the country.

The tension between the ruling and opposition parties gradually intensified, which in 1991-92 developed into an armed conflict. The President left the country, the Supreme Council ceased to function and power was taken over by the Military Council.