Irakli Kobakhidze nominated for post of Georgia’s Prime Minister Georgian castling

The current chairman of the ruling party Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze has been presented for the post of Prime Minister of the country.

Kobakhidze was nominated at the congress of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party on February 1, Caliber.Az reports, citing Georgian media.

The seat of the head of the Georgian government became vacant after Irakli Garibashvili announced his resignation and his intention to become the chairman of the ruling party. Thus, Irakli Garibashvili and Irakli Kobakhidze actually exchanged their positions.

"Irakli Kobakhidze has a full mandate from the congress," said Georgian Dream chairman Irakli Garibashvili after a symbolic vote for the party's prime ministerial candidate.

Irakli Kobakhidze is 46 years old. He has been the Chairman of the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party since January 2021. Before that, he was the executive secretary of the ruling team.

In 2016-2019, he was Chairman of the Georgian Parliament and left the post after a scandal involving a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy in Tbilisi. In 2020, he was head of the ruling party's election headquarters and led it to victory.

Kobakhidze is a lawyer by education. Prior to joining Georgian Dream, he worked as a manager of a local government reform project supported by the United Nations Development Program.

He was Acting Head of the Quality Assurance Service at the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi State University, a member of the Committee of Experts of the Human Rights and Rule of Law Program of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, a strategic planning expert at the Council of Europe Delegation in Georgia, a regional development expert at the UN Development Program and a project manager of the UN Development Program's Regional and Municipal Development Project.