GDDG Names Chairpersons of Two Parliamentary Committees

The ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party has completed week-long consultations and named chairpersons of the two remaining parliamentary committees.

Sopio Kiladze, member of GDDG’s political council and former deputy rector of the Interior Ministry’s Police Academy, has been named as the chairperson of the Committee for Human Rights and Civil Integration.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, former footballer, will become the chairman of the Committee for Sport and Youth Affairs, replacing Leri Khabelov, who entered the Parliament through GDDG’s party list.

Initially, Manana Kobakhidze, who was number 12 on GDDG’s party list, was offered to chair the human rights committee, but she refused to take any position in the new Parliament. She is the first vice speaker in the outgoing Parliament.

“I rejected this proposal because of certain reasons,” she wrote on her Facebook page without elaborating details.

GDDG, which won the constitutional majority through the October 8 parliamentary elections, nominated candidates for the majority of legislative positions on November 6. As expected, Irakli Kobakhidze, GDDG’s executive secretary, was named as the new parliamentary chairman.

Alliance of Patriots, which will have six lawmakers in the new Parliament, has also named its candidates. Irma Inashvili, one of the leaders of Alliance of Patriots, will become Parliament’s Vice Speaker, and Giorgi Lomia, the party’s political secretary, has been named as chairman of a faction.

The UNM party, which will be the largest opposition group in the Parliament with 27 lawmakers, has yet to make a decision on distribution of legislative positions.

Like Alliance of Patriots, the National Movement will also be eligible to one post of a vice speaker. The party will also have to set up a faction and nominate its head and in case of forming a parliamentary minority group, it will also have to name its leader.

The new Parliament has to hold its inaugural session no later than November 19 after the Central Election Commission summarizes final vote tallies.