Shota Kincha is a staff writer at OC Media.
On the eve of the 19 May by-elections in eight municipalities and for a parliamentary seat in Tbilisi’s Mtatsminda District, the Georgian Dream party, chaired by Georgia’s informal ruler Bidzina Ivanishvili, faces a potential new rival that could potentially mobilise the party’s estranged base — the Tbilisi elite. [Read more…]
A still-forming group in parliament led by former Georgian Dream member Eka Beselia could upset the political landscape in Georgia. With 2020 parliamentary elections on the horizon, this new group poses a potential threat to both billionaire former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling party as well as the main opposition. [Read more…]
(Parliament.ge)
The ruling Georgian Dream Party has lost its constitutional majority in parliament after three MPs left the party and the parliamentary majority grouping over parliament’s failure to pass two bills. [Read more…]
Salome Zurabishvili (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili has found herself at odds with the ruling Georgian Dream party over their decision to deny her a permanent seat on the country’s new National Security Council (NSC). Meanwhile, a former deputy secretary of the NSC told OC Media that this was not the biggest problem with the new council, and warned of the ‘excessive powers’ it’s new head may wield. [Read more…]
Eka Beselia (Tabula)
At least four MPs from Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party have threatened to leave the party, including the influential former legal affairs committee chair Eka Beselia. The split has occurred over a list of candidates for Georgia’s Supreme Court who critics say are part of a ‘clan’ within the judiciary.
[Read more…]
Bidzina Ivanishvili (Imedi TV)
In a TV interview broadcast on Tuesday night, Georgian Dream chair Bidzina Ivanishvili called the results of 28 October’s vote a ‘cold shower’ for the ruling party, and again vowed to make it right within a year. [Read more…]
Mamuka Bakhtadze (/OC Media)
Georgia’s Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced plans to write off ₾1.5 billion ($570 million) in unpaid loans for ‘over 600,000’ people blacklisted by Georgian banks. [Read more…]
Grigol Vashadze (Facebook)
The opposition candidate in Georgia’s second round presidential election, the United National Movement’s (UNM) Grigol Vashadze, has promised snap parliamentary elections if elected. Meanwhile, chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili promised ‘remarkable’ changes ‘within a year’. [Read more…]
Bidzina Ivanishvili (ipress.ge)
The chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has rejected accusations of involvement in a state racket against businesses, saying he met Omega Group director Zaza Okuashvili as a businessman. In an interview on Tuesday evening with three TV journalists, Ivanishvili said Okuashvili started blackmailing the government because he didn’t want to pay his tax debts. [Read more…]
Sergey Shamba (Dmitry Lebedev / Kommersant)
Former Prime Minister of Abkhazia, Sergey Shamba, has said that there is a need for more dialogue between Georgia and Abkhazia, and that it was time to think about a ‘common future’ as neighbours. Shamba, who served as PM from 2010–2011 as well as foreign minister from 2004-2010, made the comments in an interview published on 13 August with Echo of Moscow. [Read more…]
