Georgia Set to Select Next President in Shift Away From West

(Bloomberg) — Georgia is poised to select its next president on Saturday as protests backed by the current head of state continue over the government’s turn away from the West in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, now a lawmaker for the ruling Georgian Dream party that won disputed parliamentary elections in October, is the sole candidate for the largely ceremonial post. The president will be selected for the first time by an electoral college consisting of 300 people including all members of the parliament.

The process is taking place under constitutional changes that ended the direct election of the president and took effect this year. A candidate needs two-thirds of the college’s vote to win, and the inauguration is scheduled for Dec. 29. 

Kavelashvili, 53, would be positioned to replace Salome Zourabichvili, whose term is expiring after she won presidential elections in 2018 with the ruling party’s backing before they fell out over policy differences. She condemned the parliamentary elections won by Georgian Dream as illegitimate and backed opposition protests over alleged ballot-rigging, saying the vote was a “turning point” in deciding whether the Caucasus nation of 4 million would continue efforts to join the European Union and NATO or return to being under Russia’s influence.

Earlier this month, she said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that she’ll stay within the framework of the constitution, but was also “the only independent and legitimate institution remaining” in Georgia and vowed to remain the “voice of the nation.” 

Opposition lawmakers who back a pro-European charter have boycotted the new parliament and therefore the electoral college as well. 

Georgian Dream has restored ties with Moscow and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has alleged a “global war party” in the West is plotting to push Georgia into a conflict with Russia. Protests gained new life when the government announced late last month that it was suspending talks on seeking EU membership for four years, a move widely seen as reinforcing a tilt toward Russia.

Before politics, Kavelashvili had a career as a professional soccer player that started in 1988 and included stints as a striker with Manchester City as well with the national football team and clubs in Switzerland. In 2022 he co-founded an anti-western faction called People’s Power, though its lawmakers ran on the Georgian Dream ticket in 2024.

Thousands have been rallying in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to protest the results of the parliamentary elections. 

Georgian riot police on several occasions broke up the overnight rallies and have used water cannons, tear gas and physical force against the protesters, while demonstrators have built barricades and thrown fireworks. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has blamed “radicals and their foreign chiefs” for the violence.

In response, the Georgian Dream party is seeking a ban on face coverings, pyrotechnic accessories and certain other devices in large gatherings and demonstrations. Police have also arrested protesters on a near daily basis, and have raided the headquarters of opposition parties. Officers have detained activists at their homes and on the street away from protests as well.

The violent crackdown on demonstrators has drawn condemnation from the EU and the US. Washington suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia, saying the ruling Georgian Dream party’s “various anti-democratic actions” violated the project’s core principles and suspended visa issuance for some members of parliament and government officials complicit in “undermining democracy.”

Zourabichvili has called for new elections, and said she can remain a contact point for Georgia’s international partners. 

“I can be a bridge, a relay, in case the authorities want to open some form of dialog with the people who are protesting on the streets when that time and if that time comes,” Zourabichvili said. 

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