President Zourabichvili warns she may be imprisoned if Georgian Dream wins

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has warned that she may be impeached and imprisoned if Georgian Dream wins another term in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In a press conference on Thursday evening, Zourabichvili also said that she refused to even consider a scenario in which the ruling Georgian Dream party wins another term in the upcoming parliamentary election on 26 October. 

She repeated previously stated concerns that Georgian Dream has been fostering an unstable political environment, intimidating voters, and contributing to the difficulties that Georgians in the diaspora face when trying to cast their ballots. 

Zourabichvili was elected with the support of the ruling party in the 2018 presidential elections, but in recent years she has further distanced herself from Georgian Dream and emerged as one of the country’s most outspoken opposition figures. 

Georgian Dream previously attempted to impeach Zourabichvili in October 2023 but failed to obtain the required number of votes. Earlier in October 2024, Georgian Dream again began a new impeachment process against Zourabichvili, which constitutional scholars characterised as an act of ‘political revenge’.

In addition to her warnings about the consequences of a Georgian Dream victory, Zourabichvili also directly addressed public servants, telling them a new government would continue to support the public sector. 

‘The best protection [for civil servants] is a transition from a single-party to a multi-party coalition government’, she said.

‘This means there will no longer be one ruler, power will no longer be concentrated in a single entity, and, as a result, the environment will become much freer’.

Opposition politicians and other figures have alleged that Georgian Dream has pressured civil servants to back the ruling party. 

If successful at the ballot box, Zourabichvili also reiterated the first priorities of a new coalition government would be to roll back Georgian Dream’s recently implemented legislation widely seen as anti-democratic and restore relations with Georgia’s longtime allies, the US and the EU.