TBILISI: Georgia’s governing party is set to anoint a former footballer turned far-right politician as the country’s new president in a controversial new voting process following disputed elections in October.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, nominated by the Georgian Dream party, is slated to win Saturday’s vote which is being put to a 300-seat electoral college rather than the people, following changes to the constitution seven years ago.
The 53-year-old is the only candidate standing in the election.
Reporting from Tbilisi, Al Jazeera’s Dmitry Medvedenko said:“There’s no alternative candidate … because the opposition believes this government is illegitimate, so they’re not taking part in any processes that would legitimise the government.”
The opposition has boycotted parliament amid nationwide protests over the outcome oflegislative electionson October 26, during which observers reported instances of bribery and double voting.
PresidentSalome Zurabichvili, who was elected by popular vote six years ago and has declared the current legislature “unconstitutional”, told Al Jazeera that the country needed a “legitimate president” voted by the people, rather than “a parliament that has not received legitimacy”.
“The sense in the population is that we are at a real turning point. Either this struggle succeeds … to resist this or we will enter into a regime that will be more or less the Russian regime of [Vladimir] Putin,” she said.
People gathered in the capital as voting got under way, the latest of a series of rallies since the government announced the suspension of European Union accession talks on November 28. Police used tear gas and water cannon against the people in a violent crackdown that has seen more than 400 arrests.
A striker for Manchester City in the mid-1990s who entered politics in 2016, Kavelashvili and two other Georgian Dream parliamentarians set up a splinter group called People’s Power in 2022. People’s Power became known for its anti-Western position.
me of [Vladimir] Putin,” she said.
People gathered in the capital as voting got under way, the latest of a series of rallies since the government announced the suspension of European Union accession talks on November 28. Police used tear gas and water cannon against the people in a violent crackdown that has seen more than 400 arrests.
A striker for Manchester City in the mid-1990s who entered politics in 2016, Kavelashvili and two other Georgian Dream parliamentarians set up a splinter group called People’s Power in 2022. People’s Power became known for its anti-Western position.
