I am not sure how I missed this development, but there was a change of PM in Georgia in July.

On Ivane “Vano” Merabishvili of President Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party was appointed as PM. He replaced Nikoloz “Nika” Gilauri who had been in office since February 2009. There is a report in civil.ge. The key element of the report is that rather than a technocratic figure, PM Merabishvili is a more important party figure.

Parliamentary elections will be held on 1 October. The UNM party is facing a challenge from the Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party, which is led by Bidzina Ivanishvili.

A recent opinion poll reported here suggests that the UNM has a good lead over the Georgian Dream party.

The presidential election will be held in October 2013.