TBILISI (AP) – Former football player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia yesterday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s European Union (EU) aspirations.
Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.
Georgian Dream retained control of Parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an October 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged.
Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted Parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream – established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, of becoming increasingly authoritarian, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws to crack down on freedom of speech.
Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends tomorrow, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.
Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the EU added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanised protests.
Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004. Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018.
She became sharply critical of the ruling party’s policies and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.
“I remain your president – there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.
“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.”
Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili – mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education.
He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League.