Opposition forces Georgia's parliament speaker to resign

Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has decided to resign amid protests in the country’s capital of Tbilisi, Secretary General of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia’ party and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze confirmed.

"Since coming to power, the Georgian Dream party has sought to achieve a high level of accountability to the people. It has repeatedly proved it by its actions. The decision to resign that Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has taken is another example of high accountability," Kaladze said in a statement.

In addition, Kaladze said that "destructive forces" responsible for violent disorder during the protests must be held accountable.

Yesterday, several thousand protesters converged on the parliament in Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the interior minister and the parliament’s speaker, and tried to storm the building. The protests were sparked by an uproar over a Russian State Duma delegation’s participation in the 26th session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO).

The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Kobakhidze had it coming. "The authorities should have understood long ago that Kobakhidze, with his sassy behavior and incompetent statements, evoked popular mistrust. This is the case when everyone sees that such a person cannot be the Georgian parliament speaker," he said.

One can say with confidence that if Kobakhidze had said that he was ready to resign because of what had happened, he could well have been kept in the office. But it’s good that the Georgian Dream got rid of him, because in terms of prestige, popularity and support from the population, he only dragged the GD to the bottom," Petre Mamradze added.

According to the expert, the United National Movement will try to maximize the political benefits of Kobakhidze’s resignation, to which the Georgian Dream agreed so quickly. "Now they will demand the resignation of members of the Cabinet of Ministers, first of all, Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia. That is, their activity will be aimed at achieving early parliamentary elections under a proportional system in order to increase their presence in parliament," the head of the Institute of Management Strategy concluded.