Parties named in our lawsuit are unconstitutional; we are confident of convincing the Constitutional Court, Parliament Speaker says

“If a political party is unconstitutional, it has no place in the political arena, and our Constitution expressly provides for this,” declared the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili.

The Parliamentary Speaker noted that the Constitutional Court has a statutory nine-month window to review the lawsuit and prepare its proceedings.

“The Constitutional Court operates under its own statutory timelines for reviewing cases. We expect the court to schedule the relevant proceedings within these prescribed deadlines. This is a landmark, precedent-setting case, and it is entirely understandable that the court requires adequate time to review the submission and prepare. By law, nine months is allocated.

Our lawsuit is thoroughly substantiated. The parties named in this suit are unconstitutional, and we are confident that we will convince the Constitutional Court of the validity of our arguments.

As for the substance of the lawsuit, can there be any doubt whatsoever that these parties are unconstitutional? Look abroad: the German government announced its intention to petition its Constitutional Court to ban the AfD (Alternative for Germany). That party won in one of the federal states and currently ranks first in national public support in Germany; yet, discussions are underway to ban it even though the party itself has never held power or committed state offences. They want to ban it based on the suspicion that it might do something wrong or because certain individuals dislike its statements.

In our case, we are dealing with parties that were actually in government. These individuals established a systematic regime of torture in this country, surrendered territories without a fight, and constructed an extortion racket. Saakashvili and Gvaramia are two sides of the very same coin.

Elsewhere, Ukraine has outlawed over twenty political parties, and Moldova has banned three. When we hear critical voices, including from Brussels, questioning how a political party can be banned, the answer is that it can indeed be done, quite legitimately. If a party is unconstitutional, it has no place in the political domain. That principle is explicitly enshrined in our Constitution,” Papuashvili stated.