Who will be the new Chairman of the Supreme Court?

The selection process for the new Chairman of the Supreme Court has moved to its final phase.

The president is obliged to nominate the candidate before February 23, as the 10-year term of the current chairman expires this month.

The president’s administration has already revealed the 28 person list of candidates submitted by various NGOs, political parties and research institutions.

The candidates came after the president’s appeal to all interested sides to get involved in consultations and the selection process in January.

The president’s administration claims that 36 candidates were nominated initially. However, 8 withdrew their candidacies, among them Georgian Dream MP Tina Khidasheli, the former Chairman of the Supreme court who is currently Georgia’s Ambassador to Germany Lado Tchanturia, as well as Judge Natia Tskepladze among others.

Now the second stage is underway. The president should name his candidate based on the criteria agreed upon with the majority, minority and NGOs.

These criteria entail a principled candidate, managerial ability, free from political party influences and of course professionalism.

The point related to the political party influences has caused much dissatisfaction.

Republican Levan Berdzenishvili believes that to be a politician is not a shame and why they placed this precondition on the candidate is unclear to him.

“The main quality should be professionalism,” he says.

Meanwhile, fellow member of the coalition Tamar Kordzaia believes that in taking the current Georgian situation into account, it would be more acceptable if the candidate is distanced from politics.

“In developed countries, former politicians become judges as they manage to avoid political influence. Thus, appointing a former politician as the Supreme Court Chairman is tolerable. However, I believe that it would be better for the court system’s trustworthiness in the public eye, if the new chairman was politically neutral,” she said.

From the 28 nominees, three are the acting members of the Supreme Council of Judges, the acting head of Tbilisi Civil Court, five former judges, two MPs- Shalva Shavgulidze from the opposition Free Democrats and Zakaria Kutsnashvili from the Georgian Dream, former head of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association Ana Dolidze, eight lawyers and so on…

The president’s administration claims that Giorgi Margvelashvili will announce his decision on February 23.