Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has suggested that a proposed ban on political parties could be extended to include those who are part of a newly-formed alliance of nine prominent opposition parties.
The alliance was announced earlier in May, and consists of several major groups, including the former ruling United National Movement party (UNM). In the statement on the group’s founding, the alliance said they had agreed on a ‘common strategy and joint rules of action’ to remove the ruling Georgian Dream party from power.
Georgian Dream had said even before the 2024 parliamentary elections that they would pursue a constitutional ban of the main opposition parties, referring to them as the ‘collective UNM’, if they received a constitutional majority in the election. Although they fell short of attaining a majority, Georgian Dream still went forward with its pledge, filing an appeal with the Constitutional Court in October 2025 to ban the UNM, along with Ahali and Lelo.
Kobakhidze and other Georgian Dream officials have long used the term ‘collective UNM’ as a vague catch-all to lump together all opposition parties, which critics have widely viewed as a rhetorical precursor to Georgian Dream explicitly seeking to ban virtually all of the country’s political opposition.
In his statement on Monday, Kobakhidze used the same narrative, saying the parties in the alliance ‘have practically emerged from the ranks of the UNM’.
When asked by journalists if the government plans to expand the scope of the appeal to include the new alliance, Kobakhidze said ‘the list in the constitutional lawsuit could be updated, and all relevant parties might be included’.
‘We will work on this and make the appropriate decision’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
