Zourabichvili presents five-point plan of ‘way to new elections’

Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, has released a five-point plan for new parliamentary elections titled ‘the way to new elections’.

The plan, published on Facebook on Wednesday, outlined the priorities of the election programme.

According to the plan, it is necessary to establish ‘the conditions for the elections’, to prepare an ‘army’ of election commissions and observers, and to protect new elections ‘from fraud with the participation of international partners’.

The fourth point pertains to the need for coordination between political forces for new elections, and the last point of the plan concerned the Georgian Charter.

‘A unified election program — Georgian Charter and its priorities: release of political prisoners, repeal of “Russian laws”, restoration of a fair court’, the fifth point of the plan read.

The Georgian Charter, unveiled by Zourabichvili in May 2024, entailed establishing an interim government should the opposition succeed in ousting the ruling Georgian Dream from power in October’s parliamentary elections.

According to the charter, the government would be composed of ‘professionals’ and the opposition would rescind a raft of legislation adopted by Georgian Dream that critics deem detrimental to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

The charter provided a non-exhaustive list of legislation to be rolled back, including the foreign agent law and amendments to the tax code that would exempt offshore assets being brought to Georgia from taxes.

It  also required the temporary government to implement institutional reforms, focusing on the separation of powers and strengthening democratic checks and balances. According to the plan, the temporary government would be expected to facilitate free and fair parliamentary elections the following year.

Major Georgian opposition groups sign President Zourabichvili’s charter

Several major opposition groups have signed President Salome Zourabichvili’s ‘Georgian Charter’ — an agreement to support an interim government chosen by the president to push through EU reforms after October’s parliamentary elections. On Monday, 17 opposition groups signed the Georgian Charter at…

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The Georgian Charter has been signed by all four biggest opposition groups including Unity–National Movement, Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia.

The current political crisis followed October’s parliamentary elections, which according to official results, gave Georgian Dream a large majority, with 54% of the vote.

Following the government’s post-election decision to suspend EU membership negotiations until 2028, Georgians across the country have held daily protests for more than 90 days.

Zourabichvili attended Tuesday’s demonstration against the government in front of the parliament and stated that ‘the plan of the nation is one and without alternative — new elections’.

‘Elections mean that when there is a crisis, you turn to the people and ask them what you want, what your will is’, she said.

‘The will of the Georgian people is freedom, independence and a European future. These elections will be scheduled, there is no question about that. What should be the plan? Preparation for the elections [...]’.

Zourabichvili added that the conditions for the elections ‘are practically ready’ and in the ‘coming days you will get acquainted with the document’.

She also noted that one of the steps to ‘obtain all kinds of assistance from the most reliable partners so that the forms of manipulation that they used cannot be used again’.

‘This applies to [electronic system of] elections and many other things’.

‘I do not know how many political parties will participate in the next elections, and I wish everyone great success together, all pro-European parties, but one thing I know — there can be only one program — this is the Georgian Charter, which states that all Russian laws must be repealed, which states that all [political] prisoners must be released, which states that we must restore a fair court, which states that we must defeat corruption, which states everything that needs to be done in the first six months after the elections’.

Local media, observer groups and opposition politicians have documented widespread vote rigging by the ruling party and the institutions it controls, which they argue resulted in a favourable outcome for Georgian Dream.

What OC Media observed during Georgia’s election

OC Media collected evidence and first-hand accounts of an array of violations on the Georgian parliamentary election day. On the election day, OC Media dispatched a dozen journalists into several regions of Georgia to monitor the voting and counting process. The following details only the violatio…

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