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 October 28, 1990. The elected members later proclaimed the independence of Georgia. On May 26, 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. In 1992, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Union Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia, assuming Chairmanship of the Military Council which was reconstituted into a State Security Council. The State Council restored Georgia's Constitution of 1921, announcing August 4, 1992 as the day of parliamentary elections. In 1995, the newly elected Parliament adopted a new Constitution. Georgia now has a semi-presidential system with a unicameral parliament. In 2011 Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, signed a constitutional amendment which decreed that the seat of the parliament shall be the western city of Kutaisi. On 26 May 2012, Saakashvili inaugurated the new Parliament building in Kutaisi. This was done in an effort to decentralise power and shift some political control closer to the breakaway region of Abkhazia, although it has been criticised as marginalising the legislature, and also for the demolition of a Soviet war memorial at the new building's location. Starting from January 1, 2019, Tbilisi is once again the sole seat of the Parliament and all operations and meetings now take place in the capital, similar to the situation that existed prior to the 2012 move to Kutaisi. Status and structure The Parliament of Georgia is the country's supreme representative body which effects legislative authority, determines the main directions of the country's home and foreign policy, controls the activity of the Government within limits defined by