Zaza Bibilashvili: Claims that UNM intended to overthrow government are absurd, Saakashvili never used his leverage to trigger political crisis

“It is absurd to claim that the United National Movement either intended to overthrow the constitutional order in the past or subsequently took any steps in that direction,” Zaza Bibileishvili, a representative of the United National Movement, said at a Constitutional Court hearing.

According to him, there are many issues related to elections and democracy, including numerous legitimate political and some legal grievances against the previous government.

“To defuse the political crisis in 2007, then-President Mikheil Saakashvili resigned and called new elections to renew his legitimacy and mandate. Since 2019, Georgia has experienced several political crises, but it has never occurred to this government to do anything similar. On the contrary, whenever people demanded this, the only response we received was brutality and an openly declared policy of zero compassion and empathy.

The previous government, the United National Movement, established the first and only precedent in Georgia’s history of a democratic, peaceful and orderly transfer of power. I understand that many people like it and many do not, but there are facts that are indisputable.

After serving two terms in office, the respondent party created the first and, to date, only precedent in Georgia’s history of leaving power as a result of democratic elections and transferring power peacefully. Representatives of the opposing side were received, meetings were held, they were brought into specific buildings and seated at specific tables, and they were briefed on the functioning of particular institutions and systems. Unfortunately, just a month later, this was repaid to the respondent party in the form of political persecution.

When discussing the court’s underlying attitude, we should also note that overthrowing a government by force is incomparably more difficult than retaining power by force when you are already in government and all the levers are in your hands — whether the security forces, financial resources or other means,” Bibileishvili said.

According to him, it makes no logical sense to claim that the violent overthrow of the government is the goal of a party that established the only precedent in Georgia’s history of a peaceful transfer of power.

“Even after that, Mikheil Saakashvili remained President of Georgia for another year. He had several constitutional mechanisms at his disposal that could have triggered an artificial or entirely natural political crisis and led to early elections, but he did not use them. For reasons of political expediency, he refrained from using those mechanisms, which society could have interpreted as calling the legitimacy of the previous elections into question.

Accordingly, it is absurd to claim that the United National Movement either intended to overthrow the constitutional order in the past or subsequently took any steps in that direction,” Bibileishvili said.