Lelo-Strong Georgia’s Sioridze: Banning political parties will come at a very high political cost, both domestically and internationally

“Banning parties is a path toward destroying democracy, but in fact, it also signifies the political demise of the Georgian Dream,” said Giorgi Sioridze, a member of the Lelo-Strong Georgia coalition.

According to Sioridze, banning political parties will come at a very high political cost, both domestically and internationally.

“The Georgian Dream and Ivanishvili know well that banning political parties will come at a very high political cost, both domestically and internationally. This is reflected in personal sanctions. The Venice Commission will issue its opinion in October about the anti-constitutional legislation, which the Georgian Dream pursues and has become a captive itself since it is limited to a 9-month term. This is why they need to add new parties to prolong this deadline.

This means that, naturally, they have not yet made a decision; otherwise, they would simply have added new parties to the existing lawsuit, and that deadline would have long since expired. The fact that a new nine-month period has begun to run implies that Ivanishvili is well aware of the consequences this entails,” he said.

Through its amended constitutional lawsuit, Georgian Dream is formally seeking to outlaw the Gakharia For Georgia party. The ruling party previously filed a constitutional lawsuit requesting that the activities of the United National Movement (UNM), the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia–Lelo, and the Federalists be declared unconstitutional and outlawed.