Hobrazian Democratic Socialists congress, 3819

A party congress was held from 17 to 18 May 3819 to elect a new president of the Hobrazian Democratic Socialists, along with premier and presidential candidates. At the time of the congress, the HDS served in coalition with two other leftist parties, and had the second-largest caucus in the National Assembly.

While party president Thea Nozadze had not announced any intentions of resigning prior to the congress, she faced fierce opposition from her rivals in the internal faction called the HDS Radicals, consisting of democratic socialists. They called for a party congress, in order to oust Nozadze as leader, and replace her with one of their own. The liberal, more centrist HDS Moderates originally opposed holding a congress, but following vocal advocacy of such a meeting from the side of the HDS Radicals, they conceded.

17 May
Like during previous congresses, the party presidency was to be elected on the first day of congress. The presidency consisted of the party president, in addition to nine other member of the HDS executive. Following the defeat of the HDS Radicals at the 3812 congress, they fielded Saba Natta as their candidate once again, against the incumbent party president, Nozadze. Overall, 317 relatively high-ranking party members registered to vote in the party presidency elections. Only one of these did not participate, resulting in a turnout of 99.7%. Ultimately, Nozadze was re-elected by a margin of 3 votes, or 1%. This caused the HDS Radicals, whose candidates combined had received a majority of the vote, to advocate the implementation of a two-round system. The premiership primary elections in 3812 had been elected through a multi-ballot system, at the time with three rounds. The HDS Moderates agreed to discuss an electoral reform once all the primaries were complete, thus temporarily continuing with the previous system.

18 May
The newly elected, nine-member party presidency proposed a series of minor amendments to the party constitution, and put forth its proposed election manifesto for the upcoming 3819 general elections. While Thea Nozadze had been re-elected as party president, her rivals in the HDS Radicals controlled five of the in total nine seats in the presidency. Thus, the left-wing faction of the party had significant influence on this process, for the first time since Joey Natta's leadership.

Of all delegates, 320 registered to vote in the premiership primaries. The winner of these primaries would become the candidate of the Hobrazian Democratic Socialists for the position of prime minister. The main candidate of the HDS Radicals, Mikheil Eshvili, was elected with 53% of the vote on the fourth ballot. Eshvili had previously served as prime minister from 3811 to 3814; he also won the HDS premiership primary election in 3812. Due to this division of powers between the two main factions of the party, the new party presidency proposed to the attending delegates at the congress that the HDS should support a different party's candidate altogether, rather than fielding a HDS candidate. This proposal had passed in the presidency with 5 to 4 votes, and among all delegates with 168 to 146.

As a result, no presidential primaries were held to elect the candidate of the Hobrazian Democratic Socialists.