TBILISI, DFWatch–Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili will announce his political bloc’s candidate for president in one or two weeks.

Mr Ivanishvili said this during an appearance on a talk show on Rustavi 2 Friday.

The presidential election is scheduled for October 2013. President Mikheil Saakashvili is not allowed to stand for election this time, since he has already served out two terms.

In 2010, the constitution was amended so that the powers of the president were reduced, while the authority of the Prime Minister were increased. These new regulations will be enforced after the upcoming presidential election.

When the constitution was amended, the opposition criticized Saakashvili’s government for it, as they thought he was planning to become prime minister after finishing his second term as president and that that was the motivation behind the constitutional amendment.

The president neither confirmed nor denied that he had such an intention, and after Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition won the parliamentary election, becoming prime minister was no longer an option available to Saakashvili. Furthermore, a recent poll indicates that Georgian Dream is most likely to win the presidential election too.

It is still unknown who will be the coalition’s candidate. Ivansihvili has named Irakli Alasania, current Defense Minister, and later one of the members of parliament of the Georgian Dream coalition, as possible candidates.

Two months ago, Ivansihvili reprimanded Alasania for having mentioned during a debate in his own party, which is part of the coalition, his own desire to become president. This made clear that Ivanshvili will be the one to decide who will be the candidate, even though he claims that decision will be made by the coalition.

Friday he said that they will name the candidate in one or two weeks and he also said that only two persons in the coalition know who the candidate will be. The PM said Davit Usupashvili, Speaker of Parliament, may also soon know who it will be.

“You shouldn’t think that I have my opinion and it should be done so. If someone will give me better option and if it will be better for our country, I will share other opinion too,” he said.

The PM said the future president saying should be ‘as balanced as possible’ and not have ‘desperate aspirations to be in government’.

“When you are a soldier you should have ambition to become a general, but we have a really fragile democracy,” he said. “It is very important that a balanced person becomes president.”