Gakharia party’s Sharashidze: Party ban hearing is “theatre of the absurd”, with the verdict already decided at GD’s office

“What has happened over two days at the Constitutional Court once again confirms what we have been saying: Georgian Dream has already decided to ban the parties, and the Constitutional Court, sadly, will merely have to rubber-stamp that decision,” said MP Giorgi Sharashidze, a member of Gakharia for Georgia.

Sharashidze said the whole process resembles a theatre of the absurd.

“The process also confirms the main point: adding our party to this lawsuit was incomprehensible, utterly absurd and artificial from the start, and these two days have shown once again that it is incomprehensible not only to us but to the judges as well. The public, too, has become convinced that our party was added to this list entirely artificially.

The claimant cannot show which article of the Constitution our party could have violated. The judges don’t understand it either, as they themselves acknowledge. Yet they don’t dare to grant our motion and order the claimant to present specific evidence and specify which article of the Constitution we are accused of breaching.

This whole process resembles a theatre of the absurd. So we do not expect that the Constitutional Court will reach any decision other than the one Georgian Dream has already taken in its office,” Sharashidze said.

The Constitutional Court is hearing Georgian Dream’s constitutional lawsuit seeking to declare the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia – Lelo, the Federalists and Gakharia for Georgia unconstitutional and ban their activities. The hearing began on 21 October.