Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The Georgian parliament approved amendments to the law on political unions of citizens on August 7, which allows entities to make donations to the accounts of political parties.

The MPs passed the bill on an expedited basis with 86-0 vote in the second and third parliamentary readings.

The amendments will go into effect upon signing by the President of Georgia and will be posted on the website of the Legislative Bulletin of the country.

According to the bill, the maximum amount of the donation from one legal entity will be about $72.7 million in the dollar equivalent. There are some exceptions for donations by legal entities which have received more than 15 percent of the income as a result of simplified public procurement.

Also, the principle of political parties' funding from the state budget has changed. Under the current law, funding is designated for those parties that have passed the 4 percent barrier during the last parliamentary elections or the 3 percent barrier in the last local elections.

The 2013 presidential election in Georgia is scheduled for October. This will be the 6th presidential election after the country's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The last one, held on January 5, 2008, resulted in the election of Mikheil Saakashvili for his second and final presidential term.

Upon the inauguration of a new president in 2013, a series of constitutional amendments passed in the parliament of Georgia from 2010 to 2013 will go into effect. The amendments envisage significant reduction of the President's powers in favor of the Prime Minister.