David Usupashvili

David Usupashvili
დავით უსუფაშვილი
Usupashvili in 2013
Chairman of the political council of Lelo for Georgia
Incumbent
Assumed office December 22, 2019
Preceded by	position established
Chairman of the Development Movement
In office June 16, 2017 – December 22, 2019
Preceded by	party established
Succeeded by	party dissolved
5th Speaker of the Parliament
In office October 21, 2012 – November 18, 2016
President	Mikheil Saakashvili Giorgi Margvelashvili
Prime Minister	Bidzina Ivanishvili Irakli Garibashvili
Preceded by	David Bakradze
Succeeded by	Irakli Kobakhidze
Member of the Parliament of Georgia
In office October 21, 2012 – November 18, 2016
Succeeded by	Nino Goguadze
Constituency	Saburtalo
chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia
In office June 2005 – November 2013
Succeeded by	Khatuna Samnidze
Deputy Chairman of the political council of Georgian Dream
In office 2011 – March 2016
Personal details
Born	(1968-03-05) March 5, 1968 Magharo, Georgian SSR, USSR
Political party	Lelo for Georgia (2019-present) Development Movement (2017-2019) Republican Party of Georgia (before 2017)
Spouse	Tina Khidasheli
Children	2
Alma mater	Tbilisi State University
Signature

David Usupashvili (Georgian: დავით უსუფაშვილი, Davit Usupašvili; born March 5, 1968) is a Georgian lawyer and politician who was the chairman of the Parliament of Georgia from 2012 to 2016. He served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia from June 27, 2005 to November 3, 2013. Nowadays, he is a chairman of the Political Council of Lelo for Georgia.

Career

Born in Magharo in Soviet Georgia, Usupashvili graduated from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in law in 1992 and obtained MA in International Development Policy from the Duke University in 1999. As a legal adviser with the State Council of Georgia, he was involved in drafting the Constitution of Georgia from 1993 to 1995. In 1994 he was among the founding members of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting human rights and the rule of law, which he led as its first chairman from 1994 to 1997. He was active in the NGO-organized protests during the November 2003 Rose Revolution, which swept Mikheil Saakashvili to the presidency of Georgia. Usupashvili then distanced himself from the alliance with Saakashvili and withdrew into opposition, becoming, in June 2005, the chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia, a position he held until being succeeded by Khatuna Samnidze in November 2013.

In 2011, Usupashvili allied himself with the multi-billionaire businessman-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili and became one of the leaders of Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, of which the Republican Party was a member. After the coalition's victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, Usupashvili was elected the chairman of the Parliament of Georgia on October 21, 2012. The Republican Party broke with the Georgian Dream and ran independently for the October 2016 parliamentary elections in which it failed to clear the required threshold. Shortly after the election, Usupashvili left the Republican Party, citing political and tactical disagreements. In June 2016, Usupashvili announced the creation of a new centrist political movement with the aim to contest the upcoming municipal election in October 2017.

Usupashvili is married to Tinatin Khidasheli, a fellow former Republican Party politician.