MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2021) Georgia's ruling political party, the Georgian Dream, on Monday announced that a new chairman would be elected on Saturday and named its current Executive Secretary Irakli Kobakhidze as a candidate.
Earlier in the day, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Georgian Dream's founder, announced his resignation as the party's chairman and said that he was retiring from politics for good.
"First of all, we would like to inform you that the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia Congress will be held on Saturday, January 16 ... The Congress will elect a new party chairman and a renewed composition of the party's political council. According to the decision of the political council, Irakli Kobakhidze will be nominated for the post of the party chairman," Kakha Kaladze, the Georgian Dream's general secretary and Tbilisi mayor, said at a press conference.
Ivanishvili founded the Georgian Dream party in 2011. In coalition with other opposition forces, it won the 2012 parliamentary elections and ousted the United National Movement of former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Ivanishvili became Prime Minister of Georgia back then, but resigned and temporarily retired from politics in 2013. He returned to the party and was elected chairman of the Georgian Dream in 2018.
