“The PACE monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia have expressed their deep concern at the ruling majority’s decision to appeal to the Constitutional Court to ban three of the four democratic opposition parties,” a statement published on the PACE website reads.

According to the statement, the PACE monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Edite Estrela (Portugal, SOC) and Sabina Ćudić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, ALDE), have expressed their deep concern at the ruling majority’s decision to appeal to the Constitutional Court to ban three of the four democratic opposition parties.

“As highlighted by the Assembly in its recent resolution on upholding democracy and the rule of law in Georgia, banning the democratic opposition would effectively establish a one-party dictatorship and be incompatible with Council of Europe membership,” said the co-rapporteurs.

They urged the ruling majority to “reconsider their appeal and reverse the country’s rapid democratic backsliding.”

The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, presented a constitutional lawsuit seeking to declare the activities of the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, and Strong Georgia–Lelo unconstitutional and ban them.