Kakhaber Okriashvili | |
|---|---|
კახაბერ ოქრიაშვილი | |
 Kakhaber Okriashvili | |
| Member of the Parliament of Georgia | |
| Assumed office 11 December 2020 | |
| In office 22 April 2004 – 11 December 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Teimuraz Tsikhelashvili |
| Succeeded by | Gogi Meshveliani (As Representative of the 14th Parliamentary District) |
| Constituency | Dmanisi |
| Chairman of Progress & Freedom | |
| Assumed office 10 August 2020 Serving with Tsezar Chocheli | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 March 1966 Tbilisi (Georgian SSR) |
| Political party | United National Movement (2008–2016) Georgian Dream (2016–2020) Progress and Freedom (2020–) |
| Alma mater | Tbilisi Medical Institute |
| Profession | Doctor, businessman |
Kakhaber "Kakha" Okriashvili (Georgian: კახაბერ ოქრიაშვილი; born on 21 March 1966) is a Georgian doctor, businessman, and politician, founder of the PSP pharmacy network and a member of Parliament since 2004.
Starting his career as a doctor in the last years of the Soviet Union, he founded PSP in 1995, a company that he led until 2003, and of which he has remained majority owner since then. In 2003, he was elected to the Parliament of Georgia as an independent candidate to represent the Dmanisi Majoritarian District. Joining the Mikheil Saakashvili-affiliated United National Movement in 2008, he would be reelected that year and again in 2012, before leaving the party weeks after its defeat to Georgian Dream (GD). Formally joining GD in 2014, he was reelected in 2016 in the Dmanisi-Tsalka Majoritarian District.
A staunch conservative, he has often voted outside of party line to oppose major bills like the 2020 labor reform, the 2017 ban on commercial advertisement in Georgian Public Broadcasting, and calling for a pension reform that would allow individuals to opt out of the mandatory retirement system. Most controversially, he was a key vote against a constitutional amendment that would have sped up Georgia's transition from a mixed electoral system to a fully proportional system from 2024 to 2020, causing the bill to fail despite GD's support and prolonging a nationwide political crisis.
In 2020, he left GD and created the Progress and Freedom party with fellow businessman Tsezar Chocheli, and merged it within the UNM-led Strength is in Unity electoral bloc, winning a seat in that year's parliamentary election after a campaign that was characterized for a high level of violent incidents. One of dozens of MPs in boycott, he agreed to rejoin the legislature in May 2021.