Pro-EU critic of governing Georgian Dream party says she won’t leave office next month as parliament elected fraudulently.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she will not leave office when her term ends because the parliament is “illegitimate”, while the prime minister warned against a “revolution” amid continuing pro-European Union protests.
Thousands of Georgians protested on Saturday for a third straight night after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the government will suspend talks on EU accession.
The goal to join the 27-member is now enshrined in Georgia’s constitution, but the prime minister – who has been building closer ties with Russia – suspended the talks for four years and accused Brussels of “blackmail”.
In an address on Saturday, Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the Georgian Dream governing party, said parliament had no right to elect her successor when her term ends in December, and that she would stay in post.
The president, whose powers are largely ceremonial, maintains that the country’s October 26 election, which was won by Georgian Dream with 54 percent of the vote, was fraudulent and therefore renders the elected parliament illegitimate.
“There is no legitimate parliament, and therefore, an illegitimate parliament cannot elect a new president. Thus, no inauguration can take place, and my mandate continues until a legitimately elected parliament is formed,” she said.
Georgia’s election commission earlier this month confirmed the governing party as the winner, but watchdogs and politicians in the EU and the United States have also suggested an investigation needs to look into potential fraud.
The country’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 107 people in the capital, Tblisi, overnight during protests which saw some demonstrators build barricades and throw fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and tear gas.
The unrest came as Kobakhidze, the prime minister, accused opponents of the government’s move to halt EU accession talks of plotting a revolution, similar to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan protest, which deposed a pro-Russian president.
“In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realised. Georgia is a state, and the state will not, of course, permit this,” Kobakhidze was quoted as saying by local media.
The US State Department said on Saturday it had suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia following the decision by the Georgian Dream party to suspend accession to the EU.
“We condemn excessive force used against Georgians rightfully protesting this betrayal of their constitution – EU is a bulwark against Kremlin,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X.
“We have therefore suspended our Strategic Partnership with Georgia.”
Georgia gained independence from neighbouring Russia in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the two countries have not had any diplomatic relations since a brief 2008 war over Moscow-backed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
But the Georgian Dream party’s efforts to build closer relations with Russia had already stalled the country’s application to join the EU.
The bloc has said laws against “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights are among the main reasons behind the stall, as they curtail human rights and are modelled after legislation in Russia.