Ruling party elects Irakli Kobakhidze new party chair replacing Bidzina Ivanishvili
Hundreds of Georgian Dream delegates have unanimously elected Irakli Kobakhidze at today's party assembly. Photo: Georgian Dream press office
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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, saying his ‘mission has been accomplished.’
Member of the ninth and the tenth convocation of the Georgian parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze has served as speaker between 2016 and 2019.
He resigned in June 2019 during the large-scale protests in Tbilisi, sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament.
The Georgian Dream delegates have also elected a new composition of 21-member political council composed of:
- Irakli Kobakhidze
- Kakha Kaladze
- Vasil Maglaperidze
- Giorgi Gakharia
- Archil Talakvadze
- Maia Tskitishvili
- Giorgi Voslski
- Irakli Gharibashvili
- Tea Tsulukiani
- Mamuka Mdinaradze
- Kakha Kuchava
- Vakhtang Gomelauri
- Ekaterine Tikaradze
- Ivane Machavariani
- Maka Botchorishvili
- Shalva Papuashvili
- Mariam Kvrivishvili
- Nikoloz Samkharadze
- Sozar Subari
- Dimitri Samkharadze
- Tornike Rizhvadze
Expressing his gratitude to the party and its founder Ivanishvili, the new chair Kobakhidze said he will spare no efforts to make Georgia a truly European country.
Former Prime Minister and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili says that he will not return to politics and will suspend any political and public activities following his announcement on Monday to leave Georgian politics.
Former Prime Minister of Georgia and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili has told Entrepreneur online magazine that he will donate 90 per cent of his material assets worth 1.5 billion USD, except those with credit or other obligations, to the Cartu Charity Foundation. He stated that the purpose of the assets ‘cannot be changed’ in the process of management or alienation, because most of them ‘are not ordinary business projects’ but projects which are targeted for the development of individual branches, or even entire regions, and are designed to ensure improvements in economic, tourism and other fields.
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.
"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.’
The new chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, has been re-elected vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Kobakhidze and other members of the Georgian parliamentary delegation participate in the PACE winter session in Strasbourg.