The chair of the ruling Georgian Dream Party and former speaker of parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze, is to replace Irakli Gharibashvili as prime minister of Georgia, according to the pro-government TV channel Imedi.
On Monday, Imedi cited sources within the party as saying that an official announcement would be made at a Georgian Dream party congress on Thursday.
They reported that Gharibashvili would take up Kobakhidze’s current position as chair of the party. Kobakhidze would also occupy the post of political secretary of Georgian Dream, Imedi reported.
If confirmed, the change would come just a month after Bidzina Ivanishvili, the party’s billionaire founder and former prime minister, formally returned to politics as the party’s ‘honourary chair’.
Several hours before Imedi’s report, the speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, dismissed rumours of Gharibashvili’s possible resignation as ‘speculation’.
