Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the GD would not vote for the two nominees for the country’s National Bank’s board presented by President Salome Zourabichvili last week, claiming one of two nominees had been affiliated with the United National Movement “destructive” opposition.
“We will not support the respective nominations that were presented without consultation. It is standard practice in any democratic state that when two bodies are involved in appointing officials, that decision is preceded by consultation, which was violated in this case. Second, one of the nominees has friendly ties with the UNM leaders”, Kobakhidze said.
The comment came following the claims by the GD earlier this month that the president’s delay to nominate the candidates for the board had created threats to the main bank’s “uninterrupted operations”, adding per the agreement with Zourabichvili, she should have nominated finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili in the board.
The GD also said in exchange for nominating the minister in the board, it had pledged to override the president’s veto on the bank imposed in February, with Zourabichvili claiming the amendments could pose threats to the bank’s independence.
On June 13, the ruling party overrode the veto, following the president’s administration’s allegations that the authorities were exerting pressure on Zourabichvili to nominate Khutsishvili in the board, adding her refusal had been related to the minister’s connections with the government and his possible partiality.
Currently, the NBG has three vice-presidents with equal rights. After former chair Koba Gvenetadze’s leaving office, according to internal regulations, one of the three became an acting president, namely Archil Mestvirishvili.
The new amendments have introduced the concept of the first vice president, and, in the event of the expiration of the term of office of the president, he would perform the duties.
On June 16 Zourabichvili nominated Giorgi Bakradze and Dimitri Japaridze as the candidates for the NBG board.
