Garibashvili named as candidate for Georgian prime minister
TBILISI. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Georgian Interior Minister Irakly Garibashvili has been named as the candidate for prime minister.
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is to resign within the next few weeks, named Garibashvili as the prime ministerial candidate at consultations with government members, the political council of the ruling coalition Georgian Dream, and the parliamentary majority on Saturday.
"Georgia has received a worthy government, a worthy prime minister and president, and I am proud that I have fulfilled Georgian society's order by leaving such an excellent government and president behind," Ivanishvili said.
He called Garibashvili "a practical man, who has taken only one year to create exemplary police after the National Movement created a bogey of police."
"Irakly [Garibashvili] was subjected to the strongest pressure by the former authorities, who caught his father-in-law and threatened his family with reprisals, but he decently overcame all this horror, stood by me and has become an excellent minister, and I think he will be a very efficient premier," Ivanishvili said.
He credited Garibashvili with creating European-type police in the country, which can be called a result of his "day-to-day work."
"As a result, we have gained a worthy premier, and on [November] 17 an excellent president, and so I have kept my promise to the people by leaving an excellent tandem, and I believe in future development," Ivanishvili said.
Garibashvili vowed to continue his predecessor's efforts and do all he can for Georgia's development and for achieving the goals the people are setting before the government. "I will be faithful to the goals and principles declared by Bidzina Ivanishvili and promise that I will be working for the country's development," he said.
As concerns a new interior minister, Garibashvili said consultations on the matter are still under way. He also suggested that there could be other changes in a government he would introduce later.
Garibashvili was born in June 1982. He graduated from Tbilisi State University with a degree in international relations. He also studied at the Paris-Sorbonne University.
He was a member of the supervisory board of the Cartu bank owned by Ivanishvili in 2007-2012 and Georgia's honorary consul to San Marino in 2008. Garibashvili is fluent in English, French and Russian. He has served as the Georgian interior minister since October 2012. He is married with two children.
Garibashvili has to be endorsed as prime minister after Ivanishvili's formal resignation, which should follow the inauguration of President-elect Giorgi Margvelashvili on November 17.
The Georgian constitution stipulates that the prime minister's resignation is to be followed by the government's dissolution and the election of a new prime minister, who would present his or her government composition to the parliament for confirmation.
Parliamentary majority leader David Saganelidze had told journalists earlier that the parliament would confirm a candidate for prime minister within the shortest possible time.
"A vote of confidence in a new government, which will undergo insignificant changes compared to the current composition, will also be held without any problems," Saganelidze said.
