TBILISI, November 22, (RIA Novosti) – Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili on Thursday said he would not push for President Mikheil Saakashvili’s impeachment, News Georgia reported.
“There will be no impeachment,” he said at a press conference in Tbilisi.
Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream coalition swept the October 1 parliamentary elections in Georgia, rode to victory on an anti-Saakashvili platform and seemed to capitalize on public discontent with the president.
The prime minister even called for Saakashvili to resign shortly after Georgian Dream’s win, a comment he quickly clarified was not intended as an ultimatum.
Ivanishvili also said he wants to amend the Georgian constitution early, ahead of its scheduled change in October 2013, in order to transfer power from the president to himself and parliament.
Currently, the constitution grants considerable power to the president. Saakaashvili approved in 2010 changes that would transfer much of that power to the government after the 2013 presidential elections.
“The parliamentary majority may adopt the amendments so that the new constitution goes into effect earlier,” he said.
Georgian Dream defeated Sakaashvili’s United National Movement in the October 1 vote, securing a comfortable parliamentary majority.
The parliament on October 25 submitted its vote of confidence in the new government led by Ivanishvili.
During the campaign, Saakashvili's allies attempted to paint Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who made most of his fortune in Russia, as a Moscow-backed stooge.
Ivanishvili, meanwhile, hit back at the Saakashvili administration for what he said was rampant corruption and an increasingly authoritarian ruling style.
