At the first session of the new Georgian parliament, 116 out of a total of 120 MPs present voted in favor of the 35-year-old Bakradze, who will replace Georgia's most prominent female politician, Nino Burdzhanadze, as speaker.
There are 150 seats in the Georgian parliament, but the opposition has boycotted parliament over a row over last month's elections, which it says were rigged in favor of President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement.
Some 100 opposition activists gathered during the early hours of Saturday outside the Georgian parliament after Saakashvili had unexpectedly announced that the legislature would hold its initial session on Saturday. Their numbers later swelled to around 2,000.
Saakashvili had previously said that parliament would meet for the first time on June 10.
Speaking before parliament, Bakradze stressed that his main concern as parliamentary speaker would be the issue of Georgia's territorial integrity - a reference to the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - and the fulfillment of promises made by the ruling party during the election campaign.
"We need unity. We have no enemies within the country. Our enemies are beyond Georgia's borders, and they are trying to take away our territories," Bakradze said.
Relations between Tbilisi and Moscow have drastically deteriorated since former Russian president Vladimir Putin called for closer ties with Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In a recent development, Russia deployed some 300 unarmed railroad troops in Abkhazia in late May. The move was criticized by NATO and the EU, while Georgia accused Moscow of preparing for military action.
