The ruling Georgian Dream party has established a commission to punish the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party.
On Wednesday, the 83 sitting MPs of the Georgian Parliament supported the creation of the ‘Interim Fact-Finding Commission on the Activities of the Regime and the Officials of the Political Regime of 2003–2012’.
The UNM, which ran in the October 2024 elections as the Unity — National Movement group alongside the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party, was in power between 2003–2012.
Throughout 2024, Georgian Dream repeatedly vowed to punish the UNM, notably accusing the party of provoking and starting the August 2008 War.
The party said that the temporary investigative commission will be established for a period of three months, but its term may be extended to six months.
Within three days of its establishment, the Procedural Issues and Rules Committee must determine the number of the commission’s members and its proportional representation quotas.
According to regulations, the parliamentary majority in the investigative commission should not exceed the opposition in terms of numbers. According to media reports, People’s Power, a satellite group belonging to the ruling party, plans to join the commission as an opposition party.
Parliament virtually no longer has any opposition representation except for Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party’s 12 MPs, who are boycotting all sessions. On Wednesday, the parliamentary majority expelled 49 opposition MPs — who were also boycotting all sessions — from parliament. The expelled MPs belonged to the Unity — National Movement, Strong Georgia, and Coalition for Change groups.
Also on Wednesday, three Georgian Dream MPs formally resigned from the ruling party, declaring their intention to create a ‘healthy opposition’ — a move supported by Georgian Dream. However, it is not known whether they will participate in the commission.
According to the explanatory note of the draft, ‘the Temporary Investigative Commission, within the framework of its competence, will ensure the conduct of an accurate and transparent investigation, evaluate the activities of the regime in force between 2003–2012 in order to prevent political, economic, or other threats facing the country’.
‘It will develop and prepare relevant draft decisions, conclusions, recommendations or submissions’, the explanatory note read.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, Georgian Dream’s parliamentary leader, stated at a briefing on 9 January, that once parliament approves the conclusion of an investigation into the UNM’s activities during its time of rule, the results will be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office and ‘other relevant bodies, in accordance with Georgian legislation, for the purpose of taking further measures and ensuring the punishment of the perpetrators’.
In the run-up to the elections, Georgian Dream appealed to its electorate to help it secure a constitutional majority in the elections, vowing to outlaw their political rivals, ban ‘pseudo-liberal ideology’, and to ‘peacefully reintegrate’ Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The party cited the possibility of declaring the ‘collective National Movement’ — a loose reference to all of Georgia’s opposition groups — as one of the reasons for the need to reach a constitutional majority — which they failed to obtain in the October elections.
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The appeal was quickly met with criticism and condemnation from opposition groups, who warned of its authoritarian undertones and that the ruling party intended to push Georgia away from its path towards EU integration.
On Wednesday, UNM chair Tina Bokuchava called the commission a ‘circus performance’ and said that Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream, is trying to ‘cover up his crimes’.
‘This is, of course, another Russian propaganda attempt to cover up Ivanishvili’s own crimes with this spectacle and another circus performance, which he now plans to stage in the illegitimate, de facto parliament; the fact that the civilised world does not recognise him as a legitimate government; the fact that the economy is collapsing due to sanctions; the fact that he no longer has legitimacy either outside or inside the country’, she told media.
‘He will not be able to cover up the fact of his illegitimate nature with this circus performance, spectacle, and he will still have to accept the relinquishment of power, because new, fair elections must be held in the country’.
Thousands of people throughout the country have been protesting for more than 70 days against the government’s policies and the announcement the ruling party would halt the country’s EU accession process.
The political crisis followed October’s parliamentary elections, which according to official results, gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority, with 54% of the vote.
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