Zourabichvili has vowed to stay president after his six-year time period expires on Monday, describing the parliament as illegitimate and having no authority to decide on his successor.
Georgia’s outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili attended an opposition rally in Tbilisi and criticized the electoral school’s determination to appoint former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as her successor “a travesty.”
Kavelashvili, 53, was the one candidate on the poll and was chosen as Georgia’s new president by all however one of many 225 voters who turned out to vote.
Kavelashvili is an uncompromising critic of the West and lots of opposition figures see his appointment as proof that the ruling Georgian Dream is tightening its grip on energy and additional distancing the nation from its European aspirations.
Zourabichvili, who has lengthy disagreed with the Georgian Dream, known as Saturday’s vote a “parody of democracy.”
He disputed the outcomes of the October 26 parliamentary elections that noticed Georgian Dream stay in energy and, like a number of opposition figures, suspects the vote was rigged with Russia’s assist.
He has vowed to stay president after his six-year time period ends on Monday, describing parliament as illegitimate and having no authority to decide on his successor.
“I stay your president: there isn’t a reputable Parliament and subsequently no reputable election or inauguration,” he posted on X late final month.
“My mandate continues.”
She has been extremely essential of the ruling get together, accusing it of making use of pro-Russian insurance policies and refusing to move into legislation a few of what she sees as their most controversial items of laws.
Georgian Dream’s makes an attempt to question her have been unsuccessful.
Opposition events have additionally stated they’ll proceed to see Zourabichvili because the nation’s reputable president, even after Kavelashvili takes workplace on December 29.
Who is Mikheil Kavelashvili?
The new president has had a profitable profession as a footballer, enjoying as a striker for English Premier League group Manchester City and several other Swiss Super League groups.
He was first elected to parliament in 2016 as a member of the Georgian Dream, and in 2022 he co-founded the political motion People Power, which was allied with the Georgian Dream and have become recognized for its robust anti-Western rhetoric.
Kavelashvili was additionally one of many authors of a controversial legislation requiring organizations that obtain greater than 20 % of their funding from overseas to register as “pursuing the pursuits of a overseas energy.”
An identical legislation exists in Russia, which has been used to discredit organizations essential of the federal government.
ANNOUNCEMENTRiots in Georgia
Many in Georgia dispute the outcomes of October’s parliamentary elections, suspecting that Russian meddling might maintain what they see because the Moscow-friendly Georgian dream in energy.
Protests in opposition to the outcomes erupted, however took on a brand new dimension and unfold past the capital Tbilisi after the Georgian Dream’s November 28 determination to droop EU accession negotiations till a minimum of 2028.
This determination was in response to a European Parliament decision criticizing the elections as neither free nor truthful.
He stated the election represents one other manifestation of Georgia’s continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream get together is absolutely accountable.”
ANNOUNCEMENTInternational observers say they’ve witnessed circumstances of violence, corruption and double voting on the polls, prompting some EU lawmakers to name for a brand new vote.
The EU granted Georgia candidate standing in December 2023 on the situation that it complied with the bloc’s suggestions, however Brussels suspended that course of earlier this yr after the passage of a controversial overseas affect legislation, which it was extensively seen as a blow to democratic freedoms. .
Critics have additionally accused the Georgian Dream of turning into more and more authoritarian and tilting in direction of Moscow. The get together has not too long ago pushed for legal guidelines much like these utilized by the Kremlin to crack down on free speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
