Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Monday, Dec 24, that he had no plans to run for presidency next October, according to RIA Novosti.

“I have no intention of becoming president,” he told a news conference. “I have no plans to take up a post; I will be there - where my people need me.”

Under amendments to the Georgian constitution due to come into force after the 2013 presidential elections, the government will be vested with supreme executive powers and its head will in effect become the leader of the state.

The president will lose the power to cancel governmental decrees and put forward legal initiatives.