dpa
Kiev
Former Georgian national football team player Mikheil Kavelashvili was named the country’s new president on Saturday, receiving 224 votes from the electoral college members in a contentious election amid ongoing political turmoil.
Outside of parliament in Tbilisi, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to denounce the vote. Among the protesters was outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili, who has decried the selection of a new president under altered rules as illegitimate. Kavelashvili, the candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party, ran unopposed. He needed at least 200 votes to secure his election, although opposition representatives have refused their mandates and did not partake in the vote.
One vote was declared invalid, local media reported citing the electoral commission.
Kavelashvili, 53, has been a member of parliament since 2016 and is seen as a hardline critic of the West. The current president, Zourabichvili, rejected his election in remarks to protesters: "Nobody elected anybody. Nothing has happened,” she said, according to media reports.
She had earlier termed the vote as a "parody.” This marks the first time in Georgia’s history that the president has been elected by an electoral body, rather than through direct election. While the head of state was previously elected directly, Georgian Dream amended the constitution in 2017 to allow an electoral college made up of members of parliament and regional representatives to determine the winner. The ruling party has a majority in this forum.
The pro-Western opposition said it would not recognize the vote and says Zourabichvili will remain the legitimate head of state. After the announcement of Kavelashvili’s victory, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze congratulated the former footballer and attacked Zourabichvili.
"For more than 20 years, Georgia has not had a patriotic, morally and psychologically balanced person as president,” Kobakhidze said in a statement, adding that Kavelashvili’s election would mark a turning point for the country. Kobakhidze contended that protests called by the opposition during the election process had been poorly attended, and said his party had triumphed over them: "The radical opposition first lost the elections and then the streets.” He also alluded to dramatic pro-EU protests in Ukraine in 2014 on Maidan Square in Kiev, which succeeded in toppling the country’s pro-Russian president.
"In Georgia, the ‘Maidan’ has failed and will never succeed,” Kobakhidze claimed.
A short time later, a demonstration of several thousand government opponents marched through the centre of Tbilisi. In a post on X, Zourabichvili accused the Georgian Dream party of establishing a "repressive authoritarian regime” in the country, and noted that exactly one year ago Georgia had achieved formal candidate status for the European Union.
The opposition and Zourabichvili have also refused to recognize the results of parliamentary elections at the end of October, which were overshadowed by accusations of fraud. They are currently boycotting parliament.
Street protests against the ruling party that erupted amid the contested parliamentary elections intensified when the prime minister postponed EU accession negotiations until the end of 2028. There have been violent riots, injuries and several hundred arrests. The police have been accused of violence and torture.
Georgian Dream plans to hold the inauguration of the new president on December 29. Georgian Dream party founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, previously described the former footballer as a man characterized by "honesty, justice, patriotism and loyalty to principles.”