BUCHAREST - Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti on Saturday appointed young businessman Chiril Gaburici as prime minister-designate, according to a release of the presidential press service reaching here from Chisinau, capital of Moldova.

Gaburici has at most 15 days to draw up a governing program and pick his ministers before seeking a confidence vote in parliament.

Timofti on Friday and Saturday held consultations with the parliamentary groups in a move to designate a new candidate for premiership after the cabinet proposed by former Prime Minister Iurie Leanca failed to win the confidence vote in parliament on Thursday.

Gaburici was put forward for premiership by the Liberal Democratic Party, the only one of the five parliamentary parties which fielded a candidate.

On Jan. 23, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party signed an agreement to form a minority coalition government, as they could not reach agreement after more than 50 days of negotiations with the Liberal Party on formation of a three-party majority cabinet.

The two parties have together only 42 seats in the 101-seat parliament, while the new cabinet needs 51 votes to pass the vote of confidence in the parliament.

It seems that the new candidate will get support in the parliament from the Party of Communists, as the latter has been asking to nominate an apolitical person from the business sector as prime minister.

The Communists were allotted 21 seats in the parliament after the general elections on Nov. 30.

"I think Gaburici will get necessary number of votes," said Liberal Democratic leader Vlad Filat, expressing his conviction that the new cabinet will gain the number of votes needed to be invested, both from the Communists and the Liberals.

Yet, Liberals' leader Mihai Ghimpu reiterated on Saturday that they will vote only for a government of which it will form part.

This is the second, and also the last attempt to invest the government, otherwise the parliament will be dissolved and the country will face a snap election.

Gaburici, 38, managed the mobile phone company "Moldcell" in 2008-2012 and then its daughter company in Azerbaijan.