Georgian Dream to keep Kobakhidze as PM

Georgian Dream’s political council has approved party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili’s recommendation to keep Irakli Kobakhidze as prime minister.

The political council convened on Thursday to nominate Georgian Dream members for the several posts.

The official results of 26 October’s elections gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority, with 54% of the vote. However, local media and observer groups have documented widespread vote rigging by the ruling party.

The party’s executive secretary, Mamuka Mdinaradze, said that Kobakhidze was nominated for the post of prime minister by Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder and honorary chair of the party.

‘The honorary chair of the party has the authority to nominate a candidate for prime ministership’, he said. ‘It will not be a surprise that Mr Bidzina Ivanishvili nominated Mr Irakli Kobakhidze. And naturally, it was fully supported by the Political Council’.

Mdinaradze also confirmed that the party will again nominate Shalva Papuashvili as parliamentary speaker. Papuashvili has been serving as speaker since December 2021.

Kobakhidze was made prime minister after Irakli Gharibashvili stepped down in February with little explanation.

[Read more: Who is Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgia’s next Prime Minister?]

Since coming to power, Georgian Dream have frequently switched prime ministers, usually suddenly and without proper explanation. Several of those appointed to the position were previously relative unknowns with little to no political experience.

Since Irakli Kobakhidze became prime minister in February, the ruling party approved two controversial bills: the foreign agent law and the ‘LGBT propaganda’ law. Both were met with criticism domestically and internationally, with Western countries continuously stressing that Tbilisi was  drifting further away from EU integration. Kobakhidze’s term as prime minister also saw a deterioration in relations between Georgia and the Western partners. 

Despite worsening ties with the EU and the US, Kobakhidze and senior members from the ruling party have claimed that Georgia remains on its path towards EU integration, and that there will be a ‘qualitative reset’ of relations between Tbilisi and Brussels and Washington.

During Thursday’s briefing Mdinaradze also said that the ‘presidential elections should be set’ after parliament convenes for its first session.

President Salome Zourabichvili’s term ends in December 2024. She is the last Georgian president elected through a popular vote, with constitutional amendments making it so that presidents will now be elected by a council made up of 300 people.

The council includes all members of parliament, members of the supreme councils of Adjara and Abkhazia, and 109 members of other local government bodies.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced earlier this week that parliament was  scheduled to convene on 25 November.