Irakli Kobakhidze

42-year-old Irakli Kobakhidze takes over reins of Georgia’s ruling party as billionaire founder steps down

By | January 16th, 2021|Categories: Politics|Tags: , , |

Former party secretary Irakli Kobakhidze was "unanimously" elected as new leader of Georgian Dream. TBILISI, DFWatch--Georgia’s ruling party on Saturday elected former party secretary Irakli Kobakhidze as new chairman, after its billionaire founder stepped down.  The choice of a new leader and new composition of the political council at the party convention are important developments for [...]

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Georgian Dream starts crackdown on opposition after talks to stop boycott fail

By | December 18th, 2020|Categories: News|Tags: , , , |

GD Executive Secretary Irakli Kobakhidze. TBILISI, DFWatch--After talks between Georgian Dream and the opposition failed to defuse the political crisis, the ruling party in Georgia has started to weigh in with threats of revoking registration for the largest opposition party and stripping others of state funding. On Thursday, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Georgian Dream executive secretary, said [...]

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Georgian parliament names session hall after Zviad Gamsakhurdia

By | April 18th, 2019|Categories: Politics|Tags: , |

Parliament's bureau voting to name the main session hall after Zviad Gamsakhurdia. (parliament.ge.) TBILISI, DFWatch--Georgia has named the plenary session hall of the parliament building after the country's first president since independence. Parliament’s decision on Tuesday to name the hall after Zviad Gamsakhurdia seems to be the outcome of a rivalry between Georgia's top [...]

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‘Traitor!’ ‘Fascist!’ Accusations fly in Georgian election campaign

By | October 9th, 2018|Categories: Elections|Tags: , , |

Speaker of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze. (Facebook.) TBILISI, DFWatch--Nika Gvaramia, head of the opposition TV channel Rustavi 2, calls the ruling party-backed presidential contender a ‘traitor’. GD party secretary Irakli Kobakhidze responds by calling Gvaramia a ‘fascist’. Kobakhidze, who is the speaker of Georgia's parliament, slammed the Rustavi 2 director Monday morning at a press [...]

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Four die in coal mine explosion in Tkibuli, Georgia

By | July 16th, 2018|Categories: News|Tags: , , |

The accident happened in one of these mines in Tkibuli. (primenewsgeorgia.ge) TBILISI, DFWatch–Four miners died after a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in Tkibuli, Georgia, Monday morning, prompting the temporary closure of the mine. A further six were injured and brought to hospital. Two of them are still in a serious condition, […]

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Georgian parliament speaker slams Freedom House report

By | April 12th, 2018|Categories: Politics|Tags: , |

TBILISI, DFWatch–The speaker of Georgia’s parliament on Thursday slammed a report by the US based organization Freedom House, accusing its local contributors of being hostile to the Georgian government and the Trump administration. Using extraordinarily strong language […]

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Georgia’s ruling GD party demurring on electoral reform

By | June 19th, 2017|Categories: Legal reform|Tags: , |

Speaker of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s ruling party will defer until 2024 to fulfill one of its main promises: to overhaul an election system that has favored the incumbent force for decades. The system of single-mandate districts, so-called majoritarians, was supposed to have been phased out […]

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Escalating rhetoric between Georgia’s parliament and president

By | March 9th, 2017|Categories: Legal reform|Tags: , |

Speaker of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A meeting summoned by the Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has become the latest episode in the downward spiral of deteriorating relations between him and the ruling Georgian Dream party. On Thursday, Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze […]

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Georgian parliament overturns president’s veto of judicial bill

By | February 13th, 2017|Categories: Legal reform|Tags: , , , |

(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Opposition parties in the former Soviet republic of Georgia warn that the independence of the courts will be weakened after the ruling party overturned the president’s veto against a judicial reform bill. The so-called third wave of judicial reform was vetoed […]

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GD presents its list of committee heads in the new parliament

By | November 7th, 2016|Categories: Politics|Tags: |

Georgian Dream’s bigwigs approved Irakli Kobakhidze’s nomination as new speaker of parliament on Sunday. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–After a landslide victory in the election, Georgian Dream bigwigs gathered on Sunday to agree on key appointments for the new parliament. After the political council session was over, GD announced its list of candidates, which, not surprisingly, […]

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GD considers its party secretary as new speaker of parliament

By | November 5th, 2016|Categories: Politics|Tags: , , |

Irakli Kobakhidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–After several weeks of speculation, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili on Friday confirmed that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is considering its secretary Irakli Kobakhidze for the post as new speaker of parliament. It was expected that the stern […]

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Tbilisi NGO workers urge opposition for action against imminent GD constitutional majority

By | October 18th, 2016|Categories: Elections|Tags: , , |

Irakli Kobakhidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch--Individual members of some of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Georgian capital Tbilisi are now calling on opposition political parties to call on their voters to support opposition candidates in the second round of the parliamentary election, fearing that the ruling Georgian Dream might secure enough seats in the new parliament to [...]

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Buoyed by election result, GD begins pushing for constitutional amendments

By | October 11th, 2016|Categories: Politics|Tags: , |

Irakli Kobakhidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Already before the official election results have been announced, the ruling Georgian Dream party is talking about making two constitutional amendments. Another round of single-seat districts has still not been held, and no-one knows how many members […]

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Georgian Dream announces top 15 candidates for parliament – 8 are women

By | July 14th, 2016|Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Tamar Chugoshvili. TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian Dream Party on Wednesday announced its top 15 people on the party list for the parliamentary election in October. The list consists of eight women and seven men. There are no MPs or cabinet members among them. Three of them are deputy ministers. […]

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