Georgia’s ruling party wants to outlaw the opposition

Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream has vowed to ban the largest opposition force, United National Movement (UNM), if it wins October’s parliamentary election.

UNM was founded and led for years by Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia who has been locked up for years on the charges of abusing power and whose health in prison had at one point deteriorated to the point that human rights organizations called for his release on medical grounds.

In a statement released Tuesday, Georgian Dream blamed UNM for the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 and claimed without evidence that the party wants to open “a second front” in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“Upon obtaining a constitutional majority, we will initiate a legal process that will result in the United National Movement and all its satellite or successor parties being declared unconstitutional,” the statement added.

Georgian Dream’s statement aims to convince voters the party needs to regain a constitutional majority in order to execute its promises. However, even without having a constitutional majority they can already appeal to the Constitutional court to outlaw a party that “aims to overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional order of Georgia, to infringe on the independence and territorial integrity of the country, or to propagandize war or violence.”

Besides banning UNM, Georgian Dream said it also intends push through the Russia-style law curtailing LGBTQ+ rights which the EU and human rights organizations have warned against.

The ruling party also stated that it wants to amend the constitution to “peacefully restore” Georgia’s territorial integrity so that it “corresponds to the new reality,” not specifying details but sparking opposition fears that it might mean concessions to Russia, which last year threatened to annex Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Parliamentary elections in Georgia will take place on Oct. 26. The six opposition parties in June agreed to work together to topple the ruling party which they say has derailed the country’s bid to join the EU.

Dato Parulava contributed to this report.