President Giorgi Margvelashvili met on January 26 with outgoing chairman of Supreme Court, Kote Kublashvili, and members of the High Council of Justice (HCoJ) as a part of his ongoing consultations on nomination of new chairperson of the Supreme Court.

In his capacity of Supreme Court chairman, Kote Kublashvili, whose 10-year term in office will expire in late February, also chairs the HCoJ, a body overseeing judicial system.

Last week President Margvelashvili met separately with representatives of the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority, UNM parliamentary minority and Free Democrats parliamentary opposition parties. Before that he had a meeting with the civil society representatives as the President prepares for selecting a candidate for Supreme Court chairmanship. No specific candidates are yet discussed at the consultations and these meetings, according to president’s administration, mainly aim at exchanging views on criteria based on which a candidate should be selected.

“It is of utmost importance for us that the new leadership [of the judiciary] to have broad political and public support,” President Margvelashvili said at the meeting with the representatives of the judicial authorities on January 26.

Also on January 26 President met again leader of the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader, MP Davit Saganelidze.

A candidate named by the President will then require support of at least 76 members of the 150-seat Parliament to be approved as new chairperson of the Supreme Court.