The ruling Georgian Dream party is pushing through its candidate for president. A first neighbor congratulates. Are the protests now flaring up again?
Mikhail Kavelashvili played as a footballer for Grasshoppers and FC Zurich, among others.
Irakli Gedenidze / Reuters
Ph.D./I. /(dpa) Despite weeks of protests, a new president has been elected in the South Caucasus republic of Georgia. 224 members of an electoral committee voted for ex-footballer Mikhail Kavelashvili, and one vote was invalid, Georgian media reported, citing the Central Election Commission. There were no opposing candidates. Kavelashvili was nominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
In Switzerland, Kawelaschwili is best known as a footballer. Between 1997 and 2006 he played for a total of six Swiss clubs, including Grasshoppers and FC Zurich.
Hundreds of demonstrators, including incumbent Salome Zurabishvili, protested in front of parliament. “Nobody voted for anyone. “Nothing happened,” said the president, according to media reports. She had already declared that she saw herself as the only legitimate president. She described the new election as a “parody”.
It is the first time that the head of state was chosen not directly, but by an electoral body made up of MPs and regional representatives. The Georgian Dream changed the constitution accordingly in 2017. The opposition has already declared that it will not recognize the election.
Zurabishvili sees election as “parody”
Their representatives did not accept the mandates won in the controversial parliamentary elections at the end of October. Therefore, fewer than the 300 people’s representatives actually planned were present in the electoral committee. 200 votes were needed to win the election on Saturday.
Zurabishvili recalled that Georgia received EU candidate status exactly a year ago. “It was a day of consensus, joy among the population and great emotions!” she wrote on Platform X and accused the ruling party of having set up a “repressive authoritarian regime”.
Congratulations from Azerbaijan and the head of government
After the announcement of Kavelashvili’s victory, the President of neighboring Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, promptly congratulated him. At a press conference, Georgia’s Prime Minister Iraqi Kobachidze also congratulated the former footballer Kavelashvili on his election. “For more than 20 years, Georgia has not had a patriotic, morally and psychologically balanced person as president,” he said in a statement. The election of Kavelashvili will therefore be a turning point for the country. Predecessor Zurabishvili was also supported by the Georgian Dream when she was elected in 2018.
In view of the poorly attended protests during the election process, the Prime Minister spoke of a defeat for the opposition. “The radical opposition first lost the elections and then the streets,” wrote the head of government. Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations are no longer even able to get 2,000 people to take part in street actions. “This is their real situation, which is very good for our country. In Georgia, the “Maidan” has failed and will never succeed,” claimed Kobachidze. A little later, a demonstration of several thousand government opponents marched through the city center.
Since the parliamentary election, which was overshadowed by allegations of fraud, people in Georgia have been demonstrating regularly against the ruling party. The protest reached a new level more than two weeks ago after Kobachidze’s declaration that there would be no EU accession negotiations until the end of 2028. Critics fear that this also has to do with Russian influence. Police and demonstrators fought street battles, there were injuries and several hundred arrests, including opposition politicians. There were allegations of police violence and torture.
From football player to anti-Western politician and head of state
The 53-year-old Kavelashvili has been a member of the Georgian parliament since 2016. Before that, he was a footballer for various clubs at home and abroad – briefly also for Manchester City and for several clubs in Switzerland. He entered parliament with the Georgian Dream and later founded the anti-Western offshoot Kraft des Volks with others, which has also been registered as a party since this year. The group initiated the second attempt at the controversial law against alleged foreign influence. Despite mass protests, the Georgian Dream pushed through the Russian-style law in May.
“Honesty, justice, patriotism and loyalty to principles are the qualities that characterize Mikhail Kavelashvili,” said party founder and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili after the nomination about Kavelashvili. He is the embodiment of the Georgian man.
Because of the majority in the electoral body, there were no doubts about the appointment of the head of state. “It is therefore clear that the candidate supported by the Georgian Dream will hold the office of Georgian president,” Ivanishvili said at the time.
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