Georgia’s Prime Minister Resigns

VOA’s Georgian News Service contributed to this report.Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has resigned after a little more than a year on the job. Bakhtadze announced his decision Monday, saying he had fulfilled the mandate he was given. “The purpose and main mandate of my nomination for the post of prime minister of Georgia in 2018 was to create and implement a strategic development framework for the country,” Bakhtadze wrote on Facebook. “A strategic development framework has been created, implemented, and therefore I decided to resign because I believe I have fulfilled my mission at this point.”Bakhtadze, 37, a former finance minister who became prime minister in June last year, used a lengthy post on Facebook to warn against damaging divisions in the country.”…we must always remember that the only one who will win from the polarization of Georgian society will be an occupying country,” he wrote.He also called on the ruling Georgian Dream Party to ensure the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year are open to allow all Georgians to be heard and allow the opportunity for “new faces” in the country’s politics.The ruling Georgian Dream Party is expected to nominate Bakhtadze’s successor Tuesday, amid speculation that it could be Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia.
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