GPB fails to elect a new chairperson of the Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees of Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) failed to elect a new chairperson at the meeting held on July 18th.

According to current GPB chairman Levan Gakheladze, the new chairperson was supposed to be elected by the current nine members of the board, whose terms expire at the end of the year. There are currently two candidates: Emzar Goguadze, member of the GPB board of trustees since 2009 and Natalia Dvali, a board member since February 2012 and also a founder of non-governmental organization Civic Initiative and a chairman of the British House.

The board tried to elect a new chairperson but the votes were split between the two candidates and both received the same number of votes. Two members of the 12 member board abstained from voting and Goguadze and Dvali each received five votes.

Gakheladze became a chairperson of the board in 2008 and his term of duty expires in September 2013. The chairman of the GPB board of trustees is elected for a term of three years. A person cannot be elected chairman for more than two terms in a row.

"Within no later than 30 days prior to the expiry of the tenure of the chairman of the board of trustees, the trustees shall elect the new chairman from within their midst." states article 29 of the law on broadcasting. Therefore a new chairperson has to be elected no later than August 1st. He will hold the position till January 1st, 2014, before a new board is elected.

GPB representatives are not yet able to specify the election date.

According the law on broadcasting a candidate has to receive a majority of votes in order to be elected, therefore a candidate will need to be supported by at least seven members of the board, as there are 12 board members in total.