Georgian Dream names opposition parties they intend to ban

On Friday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze officially listed all the major pro-Western political groups his party intends to ban following the October parliamentary elections, regardless of their representation in parliament after the elections.

In his morning briefing, Kobakhidze offered his party’s first definition of who Georgian Dream considers to be a part of the ‘collective National Movement’, which they have repeatedly vowed to outlaw following parliamentary elections later this year. 

This promise has been one of Georgian Dream’s key pledges, provided they secure the 113-mandate-strong constitutional majority in a 150-seat parliament.

The ‘collective National Movement’, according to Kobakhidze, is comprised of the Unity — National Movement, Coalition for Change, and Strong Georgia alliances, as well as the For Georgia party founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia.

Unity — National Movement is led by the former ruling party United National Movement (UNM), along with Strategy Aghmashenebeli and European Georgia, groups that split off from the UNM in 2016 and 2017. The Coalition for Change is a coalition of the liberal parties Ahali, Droa, Girchi — More Freedom, and the Republicans. Finally, the Strong Georgia alliance was founded by Lelo in order to ally with Anna Dolidze’s For the People party and Aleko Elisashvili’s Citizens party.

Kobakhidze accused all of these groups of secretly allying with UNM, including the once-praised prime minister and leader of the 2020 Georgian Dream electoral list Giorgi Gakharia and his For Georgia party.

Kobakhidze additionally accused Mamuka Khazaradze, chair of the Lelo party, of racketeering, together with the UNM government, insisting that he be investigated.

Kobakhidze underlined that if the Constitutional Court recognises the ‘collective National Movement’ as unlawful, their parliamentary mandates should ‘logically’ be abolished after the October elections. 

‘Whoever crosses the threshold, none will escape justice for the crimes they committed, first during their nine years in power and then over the twelve years they spent in opposition’, Kobakhidze asserted.

Kobakhidze dismissed concerns from journalists following his prediction that only one other political group, besides his Georgian Dream party, would pass the electoral threshold, citing Ukraine and Moldova as positive examples. 

‘You know that one after another, political parties have been banned in Ukraine and Moldova’, Kobakhidze alleged, without specifying which parties.

‘Moldova’s Parliament is factually one-party, but everybody welcomes the Moldovan parliament […] The same will happen in the case of Georgia,’ Kobakhidze continued.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Moldova and Ukraine have banned opposition groups with parliamentary representation — Șor in Moldova and For Life in Ukraine — due to their alleged Russian ties. However, the ban on the party of pro-Russian billionaire Ilan Shor was overturned by a Moldovan court several months ago, and legislatures in both countries have remained multi-party.

Read in Russian on SOVA.News.