UPDATE - Georgia's parliament approves new government under Irakli Kobakhidze

UPDATES WITH BACKGROUND INFORMATION

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Georgia's parliament on Thursday approved the country's new government under Irakli Kobakhidze, who was nominated prime minister by the ruling Georgian Dream party last week.

At a plenary session in the capital Tbilisi, the parliament expressed confidence in Kobakhidze and the composition of the government, with 84 deputies voting for and 10 against out of 105 lawmakers present.

The only change in government is observed at the country's Defense Ministry, with Irakli Chikovani replacing Juansher Burchuladze as Georgian Defense Minister.

Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party last Thursday nominated its chairman Kobakhidze for role of the prime minister.

The nomination came as former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced his resignation from his post on Jan. 29, months before the country's parliamentary election in October. Garibashvili was later confirmed as the Georgian Dream party's new chairman.

​Kobakhidze served as speaker of the Georgian parliament from 2016 to 2019. He was forced to resign amid violent protests in Tbilisi in the summer of 2019, when opposition, primarily from former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's United National Movement, tried to storm the parliament building to protest the participation of Russian lawmakers in a meeting of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy.

According to the Georgian constitution, the candidacy for the prime minister is called by the largest parliamentary party, now the "Georgian Dream."

The party nominated Kobakhidze on Feb. 1 during its Congress held in the capital. He replaced Irakli Garibashvili, who had led the government for almost three years.