Georgia’s PM asks President, Parliament to complete confidence vote procedures ASAP

The Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili is asking the country’s President and Parliament to carry out the confidence vote procedures for the renewed Cabinet "as soon as possible”.

The leader of the Parliamentary majority Davit Saganelidze said the procedures could be completed by the end of the week.

Today Garibahsvili spoke to media about the recent change in Cabinet, and noted a lot of "important events” including a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) meeting in Tbilisi, Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga and "many visits” were planned for the near future and this was why the renewed Cabinet needed to be reconfirmed as immediately as the situation allowed.

"That being said, I want to ask the Georgian President and Parliament to complete the procedures for the vote of confidence as soon as possible; in this week if it’s possible,” Garibashvili said.

A vote of confidence in the country’s Cabinet was needed after Georgia’s Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs resigned today, which saw one-third of the Cabinet be changed in recent months.

While this Ministerial post was now vacant, another Ministerial role was also empty after the Environment Protection Minister stepped down on Monday.

"We have very ambitious plans and reforms which needs 24-hour work,” the PM told media, and promised the Government would continue working at its regular pace after winning Parliament’s confidence vote.

Meanwhile Parliamentary majority leader Davit Saganelidze believed gaining the vote of confidence by the end of this week was realistic.

"If the PM names the two Minister nominees and sends the corresponding documents to the President today, tomorrow we will hold a committee discussion and on the weekend we could convene a meeting and confirm the presented candidates,” Saganelidze said.

Procedures 

Under the Georgian Constitution, the country’s President needs 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.

The Parliamentary majority said they would present the current Prime Minister Garibashvili’s nominee to the President.

Garibashvili said he would not make any changes to Cabinet except for naming the two new Ministerial nominees. This basically means President 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.