Territorial reform debate in the Laws Committee: Socialists reject the Democrats’ 100-municipality map

For more than three hours, the Laws Committee debated the draft law drawn up by the Democrats on dividing the country into 100 municipalities.

The committee’s deputy chairman, Oerd Bylykbashi, asked that the opposition’s initiative for the new territorial map be reviewed together with the Socialist Party’s initiative, given that there are two draft laws on the same issue.

But the DP’s request would require restarting the consultation process for another two months, with parliament voting on the new territorial map only at the end of November — making it impossible to apply it in the upcoming local elections. The request was unacceptable to the SP.

“We are in a hurry because we want the SP deputies’ initiative to be voted within the deadlines in which the President of the Republic sets the date of the local government elections, because we want it applied in the upcoming elections. That is our political position,” said Ulsi Manja.

The Democratic Party accused the majority of conducting a fake discussion and consultation process for a year, claiming that the number of municipalities had been set by the prime minister long ago.

The majority voted down the opposition’s request, continuing the hearings on the draft law proposed by the Socialist deputies. The SP-drafted bill provides for dividing the country into 46 municipalities and is expected to be voted next week, on October 8.