Parliamentary Legal Issues Committee endorsed on February 6, GDDG MP Manana Kobakhidze as a candidate for a vacant seat at the Constitutional Court of Georgia.

Kobakhidze obtained 10 votes from the ruling party and one vote from the Alliance of Patriots. Members of the parliamentary minority did not participate in the voting process. Kobakhidze’s candidacy will now be voted at the Parliament’s plenary session.

“This is a position that requires high degree of responsibility. This is a serious challenge for me and I would like to thank the committee members for their trust, but I would also like to underline that, perhaps, the trust is based on my experience as a lawyer and my professionalism in the field of constitutional justice,” Manana Kobakhidze stated after the vote.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, chairman of the Georgian Dream faction, said on February 6 that Kobakhidze’s nomination was “well-merited.” “She has a vast experience, she is a professional. She will have to and I am sure she will manage to successfully fulfil her duties and be one of the most successful judges,” Mdinaradze told journalists.

Opposition parties and civil society representatives criticized the committee decision as an attempt to politicize the Constitutional Court.

MP Otar Kakhidze of the Movement for Liberty-European Georgia stated that Manana Kobakhidze “does not meet any of the requirements for being the constitutional court judge.” European Georgia’s Giorgi Tugushi added that Kobakhidze’s “obvious political bias and loyalty to the ruling party” raises questions.

United National Movement’s Samira Ismailova said that Kobakhidze’s candidacy “should not be discussed at all, since she is controlled by Bidzina Ivanishvili and pursues concrete political interests.”

Giorgi Beraia of the Transparency International Georgia stated that the endorsement of “one of the government’s main speakers” as the Constitutional Court judge “increases the risk of its politicization.”

Eka Beselia, chair of the Parliamentary Legal Issues Committee, dismissed the claims arguing that the “political past is not a flaw.” “Political past means more experience, especially for a lawyer.”

Kobakhidze, who was the First Vice Speaker in the previous Parliament, was re-elected in the new parliament through GDDG’s party list.

One seat in the nine-member Constitution Court has been vacant since September 2016, when the ten-year term of Ketevan Eremadze, who was appointed through parliamentary quota, expired.