Lawyer, deputy of the ruling Georgian Dream Party Shalva Papuashvili, 45, was elected Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia on Wednesday.

On Dec. 24, Kakha Kuchava surprisingly resigned and declared that he will remain a member of the Georgian Dream Party and work on a new project that he will announce next year, Georgia News reports.

The political opposition assumes that Kuchava didn’t wish to take part in the processes that the ruling party had recently launched and that were criticized by Georgia’s partners in the West.

There were 104 deputies who had registered to participate in the vote for parliamentary speaker. Although Papuashvili needed 76 votes to be elected, he garnered 88.