President sends a staff of government to parliament for approval
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Friday, May 8
The President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, has sent the reshuffled cabinet to Parliament for confidence vote.
The new cabinet has three new ministers: Tinatin Khidashelion as Minister of Defence, Tariel Khechikashvili as Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and Gigla Abulashvili as Minister of Environment Protection.
On May 7, the cabinet members arrived in Kutaisi to address the joint committee session and brief MPs about their plans after they take office. The opposition parties of the United National Movement and the Free Democrats announced in advance that they would not support the cabinet. The opposition is not happy with the PM’s decision to keep the Minister of Finance and Economy in their posts amid serious economic problems in the country.
The government administration addressed President Margvelashvili with a request to submit the new cabinet to Parliament as soon as possible. Margvelashvili had claimed he did not put his signature under the list of the cabinet members because he wanted to give more time to Prime Minister as well as to Parliament to hold consultations.
"My main motivation during the process was to hold consultations in a peaceful environment and I am pleased that we have achieved this. We saw that the coalition’s political board held a meeting, the Members of Parliament held discussions of their own and so on; this is a normal and democratic process. I am sure that this has brought only positive results. We are trying to promote the efforts of both the government and the parliament. Extending that process also served this purpose,” stated Margvelashvili.
A vote of confidence in Georgia’s Cabinet was needed after Levan Khipiani, Minister of Sports and Youth affairs and the seventh minister to leave his post; this automatically dissolved the cabinet, as 1/3 of its members had changed. According to the Constitution, the 20-member cabinet needs to gain Parliament’s confidence once again.
Before the confidence vote, the Parliament had to revoke the MP credentials of Khidasheli and Agulashvili, as the law bans a government member from also being an MP.
Georgia’s Parliament will vote for the renewed Cabinet on today, May 8, at 3 PM at a highly anticipated session. A subsequent decree summoning the session was signed by President Margvelashvili a day earlier.
