MP Kobakhidze nominated for new chair of ruling party
Irakli Kobakhidze is likely to be elected the new chair of the ruling party on Saturday, January 16. Photo: Irakli Kobakhidze’s Facebook page.
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Georgian Dream party MP and former parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has been nominated for the new chair of the Georgian Dream following the recent resignation of the party head and founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The ruling party assembly composed of about 400 delegates around the country is scheduled on January 16 in Tbilisi which will elect the new chair of the party and the political council.
The political council of the Georgian Dream has presented Irakli Kobakhidze for the new chair of the ruling party,” Georgian Dream Secretary General Kakha Kaladze stated earlier today.
Associate professor of law Kobakhidze has been a ruling party MP twice, in the 9th and 10th convocations of the parliament of Georgia.
Between 2016 and 2019 he was the parliament speaker of Georgia and resigned in June 2019 during the large-scale protests in Tbilisi, sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and the ruling Georgian Dream party members have stated that the decision of the party founder and the head Bidzina Ivanishvili to leave politics is ‘exemplary’, while opposition parties have described the move as ‘irresponsible and an expression of weakness.’
"I have made the decision to finally retire from politics and fully distance myself from the reins of power. I am leaving the post of party chairman, as well as the party itself and am returning to my pre-2011, private lifestyle. I will turn 65 years old in just a few weeks, and this is one of the important factors in making the decision to retire from politics,” Ivanishvili said, adding that the step ‘which is dictated by the desire to advance young people to the forefront...will not only not weaken, but will, in fact, further strengthen the ruling party.’
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Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has resigned amid public protests after a Russian MP addressed the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy from the chair of the Georgian parliament speaker in Tbilisi yesterday.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has officially elected Irakli Kobakhidze its new chair at a party assembly today. The post became vacant after the party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili left the party and politics earlier this week.
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze, who is holding meetings with MEPs and EU officials in Strasbourg along with other Georgian MPs, says that the country’s foreign partners wish to see a decrease in Georgian political polarization.