Ruling Georgian Dream to seek ban on ex-PM’s party in latest Constitutional Court bid

“The ruling party, Georgian Dream, will seek to ban the opposition party Gakharia For Georgia through a new constitutional lawsuit,” the leader of the parliamentary majority, Irakli Kirtskhalia, has announced.

However, as Kirtskhalia noted, the lawsuit does not demand the immediate termination of parliamentary and municipal council mandates.

“This week, a lawsuit will be submitted to the Constitutional Court concerning the so-called opposition parties. Gakharia For Georgia will be joining these parties. We all recall their plans to enter parliament and then have their mandates recognised. Our political team gave them a chance back then to genuinely participate in the process, despite their past and direct coalition with the United National Movement [UNM]. However, we witnessed a blatant, brazen refusal to recognise the constitutional order, alongside numerous destructive acts surrounding it. Colour and ballot number do not matter when you serve the same agenda as the collective UNM agent network; to us, this is tantamount to betraying the country’s interests. Even within the framework of this lawsuit, we have not requested the revocation of mandates for individual MPs,” stated Kirtskhalia following a majority meeting.

For context, Georgian Dream has already filed a constitutional lawsuit seeking to recognise as unconstitutional and ban the activities of the United National Movement, Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia – Lelo, and the Federalists.