Minister of Sports resigns, Cabinet needs new vote of confidence

Georgia’s renewed Cabinet will need to regain a vote of confidence from Parliament following today's resignation of the country’s Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs.

Despite several Ministers departing their posts recently, the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili doesn’t expect major changes ahead.

Minister Levan Kipiani, who announced his resignation earlier today, was the seventh Minister of Georgia’s Cabinet who stepped down or was changed following a major Government reshuffle in July 2014.

The Sports Minister's resignation came after the Sports Parliamentary Committee accused him and his team of "ineffective” and "Soviet-style” governance.

Kipiani said he didn’t agree with this assessment but didn't want to engage in a confrontation against another branch of the Government and decided to step down.

"Of course, I realise this will make the Government need a new confidence vote but I’m sure the Government will easily gain it,” he said.

Before announcing his resignation, Kipiani summed up his governance and said during the past two years Georgian athletes had received 953 medals, of which 324 were gold.

Meanwhile, this Ministerial change will see the Georgian Parliament exercise a new norm of the Constitution, which said the replacement of one-third of Cabinet since it last won Parliament’s confidence vote must now undertake the practice of gaining a new vote of confidence.

Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili said this new norm was a "democratic mechanism”, which was added to the Georgian Constitution after the Government changed in 2012.

"This democratic mechanism, which was added to the Constitution by us, will be practiced soon, which is very good,” Usupashvili said.

Currently, Georgia’s Cabinet consists of 20 members, which means Prime Minister could change six Ministers without asking Parliament but as soon as the seventh Minister was changed, the Cabinet was announced as disbanded – unlike previously when the Prime Minister could change as many Cabinet Members as he wanted without Parliament's approval.

Now, under the Georgian Constitution, the country’s President will need to present a new Cabinet to Parliament within seven days.

A new Prime Minister nominee, on the other hand, should be presented to the President by the Parliamentary majority, while minister nominees should be named by the Prime Minister nominee.

As expected, the ruling majority will present the current Prime Minister Garibashvili’s nominee to the President.

On the other hand, today Garibashvili said he would not make any changes to Cabinet, except for naming new Ministers for two vacant posts - Sports Minister and Environment Minister (as Minister Elguja Khokrishvili resigned on Monday). Garibashvili has two weeks to complete this action.

This basically means President Giorgi Margvelashvili will need to present to Parliament the current Cabinet with only minor changes in it. For this, Margvelashvili has one week.

After all of these steps, Parliament will have a further seven days to give a vote of confidence to the new Cabinet. For this, the votes from a plain majority of all Members of Parliament are needed.

If Parliament fails to give a vote of confidence within a week, the President can dismiss the Parliament and announce a special parliamentary election – something the ruling coalition does not expect.