{"id":424198,"date":"2024-11-26T06:55:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T06:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=424198"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Georgia-parliament-convenes-amid-legitimacy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Georgia-parliament-convenes-amid-legitimacy-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia parliament convenes amid legitimacy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia’s new parliament met for the first time Monday, with the chamber facing serious questions over its legitimacy amid a boycott by opposition parties and the president declaring it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Political turmoil has rocked the Black Sea nation since an October 26 election, won by the governing Georgian Dream party but contested by pro-Western opposition parties.<\/p>\n

Calling the results “illegitimate,” they have refused to take their seats in the new parliament.<\/p>\n

Pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili — also at loggerheads with the governing party — has filed a lawsuit with the constitutional court seeking to annul the election results.<\/p>\n

Zurabishvili, who has largely ceremonial powers, has refused to issue the required presidential decree to convene the legislature.<\/p>\n

She has accused Russia of vote interference — claims rejected by Moscow.<\/p>\n

The ruling Georgian Dream party, which secured 89 seats in the 150-member chamber, says the vote was free and fair.<\/p>\n

Party lawmakers gathered at mid-day for an inaugural session that was boycotted by the opposition.<\/p>\n

They voted 88-0 to approve the mandates of all 150 members of the new parliament.<\/p>\n

But the opposition boycott has put the legislature at risk of becoming a one-party body — a potentially significant blow to its political legitimacy.<\/p>\n

– ‘Coup’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Zurabishvili declared Monday’s plenary session “unconstitutional,” saying “massive electoral fraud has undermined its legitimacy”.<\/p>\n

“Georgian Dream slaves are killing our constitution and making a mockery of our parliament,” she said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

A leading constitutional law expert, Vakhushti Menabde, has said the “new parliament cannot convene until the constitutional court delivers its ruling on Zurabishvili’s lawsuit”.<\/p>\n

Amid a heavy police presence, demonstrators gathered outside parliament on Sunday night, setting up camps and blocking traffic along Tbilisi’s main road.<\/p>\n

“As of today, Georgia doesn’t have a legitimate parliament,” one demonstrator, 27-year-old painter Giorgi Nikabadze, told AFP.<\/p>\n

“This is basically a coup by Georgian Dream, and that’s what we are protesting here.”<\/p>\n

Georgian Dream, in power for more than a decade, has been accused of democratic backsliding, as well as moving Tbilisi away from Europe and closer to Moscow.<\/p>\n

The party rejects the accusations and says its “top priority” is to secure EU membership for the nation of around 3.7 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its election campaign used images of Ukrainian cities destroyed by Russia’s invasion to warn against voting for the opposition, attacked Western-funded rights groups and pushed through anti-LGBTQ legislation.<\/p>\n

Georgia fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 over control of separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the two countries still have no formal diplomatic relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

– Presidential selection looms –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

After the vote, a group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said they had evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud that swayed results in favour of Georgian Dream.<\/p>\n

Brussels had warned Tbilisi that the conduct of the election would be decisive for its prospects of joining the bloc.<\/p>\n

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last week “the election will have to be investigated” and announced Brussels was sending a mission to Georgia.<\/p>\n

During Monday’s session, Georgian Dream MPs voted to re-appoint speaker Shalva Papuashvili to a new \u00a0term.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Papuashvili said MPs would vote in the coming days for Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to continue as the head of government.<\/p>\n

The right to nominate a prime minister is held by Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder and “honorary chairman” Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely regarded as pulling the strings of power without any official government position.<\/p>\n

He received a standing ovation from lawmakers during Monday’s session.<\/p>\n

MPs will also set the date for an indirect presidential election, expected by the end of the year — with Zurabishvili set to lose office.<\/p>\n

As a result of constitutional reform adopted in 2017, the next president will — for the first time — be elected by an electoral college consisting of lawmakers and local officials rather than a direct popular vote.<\/p>\n

im\/jc\/tw<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Georgian opposition supporters have protested against the results of last month’s parliamentary elections<\/p>\n

-Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Opposition MPs boycotted the inaugural session of Georgia’s new parliament<\/p>\n

-Handout
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Georgian Dream, in power for more than a decade, has been accused of democratic backsliding in office<\/p>\n

-Vano SHLAMOV
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Brussels had warned Tbilisi that the conduct of the election would be decisive for its prospects of joining the bloc<\/p>\n

-Vano SHLAMOV
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia’s new parliament met for the first time Monday, with the chamber facing serious questions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}