Parliament approves president’s nominees
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, October 20
The Parliament approved two candidates for Supreme Court judges, nominated by President Giorgi Margvelasvhili on October 17.
Nino Bakakuri and Zurab Dzlierishvili were approved with 93 and 99 votes for a ten-year term.
Their nominations were voted down by the Georgian Dream majority in early August, but President Margvelashvili re-nominated them.
The president welcomed the approval of these candidates by the parliament and said in a statement on October 17 that “impartial and professional people would join the Supreme court.”
On August 1, 2014 the president first announced Bakakuri and Dzlierishvili as his nominees for the Supreme Court Judge role. Each needed at least 76 votes to be approved for the position.
However this did not happen. During the voting process, 29 members of parliament voted in favor of Bakakuri and 27 voted for Dzlierishvili.
Candidate Bakakuri has worked as a lawyer for 16 years and has three years working experience as a judge. From 1998 to 2004 she worked for the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) as a lawyer and legal adviser.
Bakakuri obtained her Masters in Law at Columbia University’s Law School in New York. She has spent time as a researcher at Georgetown University Law School in international law and is a member of the New York Lawyers Association. She is also a lecturer in comparative corporate law, corporate governance and business law at various universities.
The other candidate, Dzlierishvili, is a Doctor of Law and has been a member of the Ethics Committee of the Bar Association since 2009. He is an arbiter of the Tbilisi Arbitration Institute, has many years teaching experience and has penned many research and scientific articles.
Both majority and minority members approved the candidates. Minority member Sergo Ratiani stated that the majority guessed that not supporting the candidates repeatedly would be politically unbeneficial for the Georgian Dream government. He admitted that both of the candidates were professional.
Majority member Tina Khidasheli also welcomed the solution, stressing the professionalism and experience of the people.
