Georgia's parliament approves constitutional changes with first reading

TBILISI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Georgia's parliament on Thursday passed the first reading of the amendments to the newly-adopted constitution to incorporate several new changes to the document, according to a statement from the parliament.

With the amendments, parties will be allowed to form election blocs for the next parliamentary election in 2020. Also, the so-called bonus system, which entails transfer of votes of the parties that fail to cross the parliamentary threshold entirely to the winner, will be scrapped.

Meanwhile, constitutional grounds for restricting freedom of faith, confession and conscience will be redrawn, and "state security," "preventing crime" and "administering justice" will be removed from the text.

Amendments will also be introduced to the Constitutional Court-related provisions.

Under the country's current constitution, constitutional amendments have to be confirmed at two consecutive parliamentary sessions. Therefore, the third and final hearing for today's constitutional bill will have to be held during the spring session in 2018.

The new constitution will enter into force following the next presidential election in 2018. Enditem