“A former Manchester City footballer has been named president by a contested Georgian parliament, after 17 days of pro-European Union protests swept several cities across the country,” reports, on its site, the BBC. Mikheïl Kavelashvili, 53 years old and candidate of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, was not elected by universal suffrage but by a college of voters, controlled by his party, a first.
Mikheïl Kavelashvili was elected with 224 votes by a commission made up of 300 members and was the only candidate in the running. “The chairman of the Central Election Commission said that 225 members participated in the vote, with one ballot being invalid,” precise Georgia Today. The opposition boycotted the process.
A choice that “aggravates tensions between the pro-Russian government and the pro-Western opposition in a context of growing popular anger over the former's decision to interrupt negotiations for accession to the European Union (EU)”, analyzes the website of the American chain CNN.
Puppet?
Mikheïl Kavelashvili is accused by supporters of a rapprochement with the EU of being a puppet of the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, founded the Georgian Dream party and whom some suspect of
