Georgia's Saakashvili Makes Poll-Winning Rival PM
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Wednesday nominated his rival Bidzina Ivanishvili as prime minister after the tycoon's coalition defeated the president's ruling party in polls this month.
"The leader of the coalition which won the October 1 parliamentary elections, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has been selected for the post of prime minister," Saakashvili's spokeswoman Manana Manjgaladze told a news conference.
As prime minister, billionaire Ivanishvili is set to gain wide-ranging new powers when the presidency's role is reduced under constitutional changes that will come into force after Saakashvili's two-term rule ends in 2013, when Georgia will become a mainly parliamentary republic.
Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition said that Saakashvili's decision came as no surprise.
"It is absolutely logical that the president has nominated Bidzina Ivanishvili as candidate for the post of prime minister," Georgian Dream spokeswoman Maia Panjikidze told Agence France Presse.
"Candidates for ministerial posts are already selected, the new parliament will be convened on Sunday and the new cabinet will be approved within the coming days," she said.
The unexpected victory of Ivanishvili's coalition ended the nine-year dominance of Saakashvili's United National Movement party in the ex-Soviet state.
The billionaire tycoon's bloc could hold 85 seats in the 150-seat parliament with Saakashvili's party taking the remaining 65, according to the latest provisional figures from the central election commission.
But Georgian Dream appears not to have won a constitutional majority which would give it the same hold over the country as Saakashvili's outgoing government, which was swept to power by the 2003 "Rose Revolution".
Ivanishvili has promised to maintain Saakashvili's staunchly pro-Western foreign policy and ambitions to join NATO which have infuriated arch foe Russia, but to also improve relations with Moscow.
His proposed minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Aleksi Petriashvili, said Wednesday that although talks with Russia were necessary, Georgia's Western direction was irreversible.
"Nobody has any illusion that (Moscow) will be positive about our course, which means integration to NATO and the EU," Petriashvili told journalists.
Tbilisi and Moscow have not had diplomatic relations since they fought a brief war in 2008, and Georgia accuses Russia of occupying two of its regions.
Ivanishvili has already announced his first cabinet which includes several ex-diplomats, veteran politicians from the pre-Rose Revolution government of president Eduard Shevardnadze, and newcomers like retired AC Milan football star Kakha Kaladze, who has been named as energy minister.
Saakashvili, who is currently on a trip to Romania, said before he left on Tuesday that he was ready to cooperate with the new government because it represented "the will of the Georgian people".
The Georgian president also said on Tuesday that he would restore Ivanishvili's citizenship, which was revoked a year ago after the tycoon announced his intention to challenge the ruling party.
He was stripped of his Georgian passport on the grounds that he had also acquired French citizenship and contravened a legal technicality on the holding of dual passports.
Ivanishvili's nomination as prime minister must be confirmed by the new parliament.
Source: Agence France Presse
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