Georgia: Violence escalates ahead of presidential election

This is no ordinary election. The mood in Georgia is fraught in the run-up to the vote on December 14. For more than two weeks now there have been mass protests all over the country, and authorities have responded with force.

The protests are taking place amid the growing confrontation between the political opposition and the governing party, Georgian Dream. It started with the parliamentary election in October, and escalated with the government's recent announcement that it was suspending Georgia's European Union accession process.

Head of state with limited powers

The crisis has been exacerbated by amendments made to the constitution in 2017, which allowed the Georgian Dream party to use its parliamentary supermajority to pass certain reforms. Among them were changes made to the procedure for electing the president, which has turned the country into a parliamentary republic where the president now has only limited powers.

The 2018 presidential election was the last in which the head of state was elected directly by the people. Salome Zourabichvili, whose candidacy was supported at the time by the governing party, won that vote. However, since then the relationship between this pro-European president and the pro-Russian Georgian Dream has soured.

Under the reforms, the head of state, a largely ceremonial role, will now be chosen by an electoral college of 300 people, made up of 150 representatives of the newly elected parliament and 150 regional delegates. Since the Georgian Dream party has both a parliamentary majority and considerable influence in the country's regions, opposition candidates stand no chance of victory.

Opposition boycotting election

The opposition is boycotting both the newly elected parliament and the presidential election, so Georgian Dream is the only party to have put forward a candidate. According to the official results of the October parliamentary election, the ruling party won 89 of the 150 seats.

However, that election was marred by numerous irregularities, which led the European Union to call for a rerun. The opposition has alleged electoral fraud on a massive scale, and has refused to take its seats in parliament.

President Zourabichvili has also rejected the election results, and said she is now the only legitimate state institution in Georgia. She has said she will not step down until new a parliamentary election is held.

Georgian political expert Gela Vasadze said Saturday's presidential election should not be recognized. "How can elections be held when the parliament is illegitimate?" he asked, adding that he believes there was massive fraud in the October parliamentary vote, the results of which Georgian society has refused to recognize.

"But the most important thing is that the constitution was violated when the first session of parliament was not convened by the head of state — and at a time when the president and a whole series of opposition figures had filed lawsuits with the constitutional court claiming that there had been electoral fraud," he told DW.

Far-right candidate accuses opposition of provoking 'revolution'

Georgian Dream has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili as its candidate — a former professional footballer and a far-right member of parliament for the People's Power party, which supports the government.

Representatives of Georgian civil society have identified him as one of the authors of the controversial foreign agents law, legislation which came into effect in June that requires organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from
abroad to register as agents of foreign influence.

The law was the catalyst for fierce protests, and caused a rapid deterioration in Georgia's relations with the West. Some sectors of Georgian society have also criticized Kavelashvili's candidacy over his lack of higher education.

For his part, Kavelashvili has accused the opposition of being controlled by "members of the US Congress," who he claims want to provoke a "revolution" in Georgia and create conditions like those in Ukraine.

Political expert Vasadze said Kavelashvili can only be considered an "appointed president," not an elected one. He does not believe it possible to hold fair elections in Georgia under the current conditions.

More protests expected as state warns of escalation

Meanwhile, Georgian Dream has warned President Zourabichvili that she must vacate the presidential palace in Tbilisi by December 29 — the day the new president is due to be inaugurated.

Outside the Orbeliani Palace, the official residence of the head of state, a little train has been installed as a New Year's decoration. "They've put a train outside the Orbeliani Palace," wrote Zourabichvili on social media. "Let's see who will go."

The ongoing protests seem to be worrying the government. On Tuesday, the State Security Service issued a statement, claiming "the organizers of destructive and criminal acts are planning to prevent, by any means possible, the election of the sixth president of Georgia on December 14, 2024, which would artificially trigger a crisis."

According to the authorities, certain individuals intend "to escalate the situation as much as possible," potentially resulting in "two or three fatalities." The State Security Service went on to warn that these people will then accuse the government of "murder" as a way of fueling the protests.

This article was originally written in Russian.