Five candidates for Public Broadcaster director vacancy
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, January 4
Five candidates out of a total of 15 managed to qualify for the second round of the Georgia’s Public Broadcaster (GPB) Director elections.
The candidates who moved to the second round are as follows:
Zaal Anjaparidze – 6 votes,
Vasil Maghlaperidze – 6 votes,
Nino Zautashvili – 5 votes,
Natia Kupreishvili – 8 votes,
Tinatin Berdzenishvili – 8 votes.
The candidates will have interviews with the eight-member Board of Trustees on January 4-5. After this, the GPB’s Board will make their final decision on January through a vote.
The process will allegedly be transparent and public. The candidate will need a majority of votes of the Board of Trustees to take the post.
The post became vacant in late November 2016, when then-Director General Giorgi Baratashvili officially left the post ahead of the October 8 parliamentary elections.
His resignation was unexpected and raised many doubts that Baratashvili’s decision was not politically motivated, as his term in office was due to expire in December 2018.
However, Baratashvili stated his decision had nothing to do with politics and was linked to his future plans and a better job offer.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and media analysts call on the GPB Board of Trustees to elect a politically impartial candidate.
