European Central: Political Unrest Continues To Consume Georgia

france 24

In late October, Georgia held its parliamentary elections, with the Euroskeptic and pro-Russia Georgian Dream (GD) emerging victorious. The results, however, were fiercely contested by Georgia’s opposition parties. Prominent pro-EU opposition leaders, including the country’s president, Salome Zourabichvili, denounced the outcome as fraudulent, accusing the Georgian Dream party of employing Russian-style election tampering tactics to manipulate the results in their favor.

Georgian opposition leaders also called on their supporters to take to the streets in protest of the election. Their supporters obliged this request. In the nearly two months since the parliamentary elections, Georgia has seen almost continuous protests. These protests have been met with force by Georgia’s police and security services. Riot police have used ‘water cannons and tear gas every day to disperse the rallies, beating scores of protesters who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard.’

In early December, the protests took a dramatic turn after Georgia’s prime minister and leader of Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced that the government had suspended negotiations on joining the European Union. For yet another night, protesters took to the streets in Tbilisi, the nation’s capital, and marched on the parliament building.

In these latest protests, which occurred on Saturday, December 7, journalists became the target of masked vigilantes. Journalist Maka Chikhladze and her colleague from the independent Pirveli TV channel were targeted by a violent mob of men dressed in black, Chikhladze told the Associated Press. Chikladze claimed her colleague captured footage of the men attacking demonstrators before they turned their attention to the pair, shoving Chikhladze to the ground. Chikhladze accused Georgia’s government of unleashing bands of thugs on demonstrators and journalists attending anti-government rallies as a means of deterrence, an allegation strongly denied by Mamuka Mdinanradze, the leader of Georgian Dream.

On the same day, reporters from the AP observed a groups of masked individuals tackling people trying to enter the offices of one of Georgia’s pro-European opposition parties, Ahali.

The office of Georgia’s rights inspector issued a statement the following day condemning Georgia’s police for ‘failing to take adequate measures’ to ensure the safety and security of all individuals – protesters and press – during the demonstrations.

In the middle of December, the protests once again escalated ahead of presidential elections in the country, scheduled for December 14. The opposition boycotted the presidential election, as they did with the newly-elected parliament. Thus, Georgian Dream was the only party to contest the election.

This presidential election marked the first time that Georgia’s recently adopted electoral system was used. In 2017, GD used its large majority in parliament to pass controversial electoral reforms, which included a new procedure for electing the president. Under this process, the president, who serves as Georgia’s head of state, is chosen by an ‘electoral college’ comprised of 300 members. Half are representatives from the country’s parliament while the other half are regional delegates. As GD has ‘both a parliamentary majority and considerable influence in the country's regions, opposition candidates stand no chance of victory.’

Sure enough, Mikheil Kavelashvili, the GD-backed candidate, emerged victorious in the presidential election, receiving 100% of electoral votes cast (224). The 76 outstanding electoral college votes were opposition politicians who chose to sit out the vote.

The 2018 election marked the final time Georgia’s president was directly elected by the people. Salome Zourabichvili, whose candidacy was supported by Georgian Dream, won that race. However, her relationship with GD has since significantly deteriorated. Zourabichvili, as noted earlier, rejected the outcome of the October parliamentary elections. She has also condemned the recent presidential race, claiming that she is ‘now the only legitimate state institution in Georgia’ and that she ‘will not step down until new a parliamentary election is held.’

In response, President-elect Kavelashvili, a former professional football player and far-right member of parliament, as well as one of the architects of Georgia’s controversial foreign agents law, accused opposition politicians of being influenced by ‘members of the US Congress,’ who he asserts are attempting to incite a ‘revolution’ in Georgia.

Georgian Dream has moreover cautioned President Zourabichvili that ‘she must vacate the presidential palace in Tbilisi by December 29 – the day the new president is due to be inaugurated.’

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, the German international news broadcaster, political analyst Gela Vasadze of the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center said that the presidential election should not be accepted: ‘How can elections be held when the parliament is illegitimate?’ ‘But the most important thing is that the constitution was violated when the first session of parliament was not convened by the head of state [Zourabichvili] – and at a time when the president and a whole series of opposition figures had filed lawsuits with the constitutional court claiming that there had been electoral fraud,’ he said. Vasadze moreover claimed that it was impossible to hold a free and fair election in Georgia at the present moment.

Georgia now stands at a critical and perilous political crossroads, with a deep and potentially unbridgeable divide between Georgian Dream and the country’s opposition parties. As the country grapples with tensions over bitterly contested and controversial elections, its future, caught between Russia and the West, remains uncertain. Regardless of the outcome, this political crisis will have lasting and profound implications for Georgia’s government, civil society, and population.