Georgia’s ruling party has announced plans to petition the country’s top court to declare opposition parties unconstitutional, threatening to deepen the country’s political crisis.
The South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million descended into political turmoil after October’s disputed parliamentary elections, in which the ruling Moscow-aligned Georgian Dream party claimed victory.
The opposition, including then-President Salome Zourabichvili, rejected the results, alleging foul play and boycotting parliament in protest.
Tensions peaked in late November when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze abruptly suspended Georgia’s EU membership talks, sparking nationwide demonstrations.
In a move that could intensify the crisis, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the parliamentary leader of Georgian Dream, announced on Thursday that the ruling party plans to petition the Constitutional Court to declare the United National Movement (UNM) and other opposition groups unconstitutional.
He added that the “collective UNM” would be banned from the municipal elections in October and any future elections in Georgia.
Mdinaradze said: “It is clear that the conclusion of the investigative commission will provide a solid legal basis for declaring these parties unconstitutional, and we are confident that the Constitutional Court will make an objective decision.”
“These are anti-Georgian, anti-constitutional, anti-national, and criminal parties,” Mdinaradze said. “They will be declared unconstitutional and banned from operating!”
The ruling party has been using the term “collective National Movement” to describe a wide range of pro-Western liberal rival groups, including those that either split from the UNM, are led by former UNM officials, or have allied with the party's main rivals.
Responding to Mdinaradze’s remarks, Giorgi Baramidze, the political secretary of the UNM, said: “No matter how much you try to destroy this party, you cannot destroy the Georgian people or the idea of freedom, a strong, united, democratic, and European state that is central to our people.”
Georgian Dream has faced accusations of moving Tbilisi away from the Western orbit of influence and fostering closer ties with Moscow.
