Tbilisi, Georgia’s electoral college voted 224-76, electing Mikhail Kavelashvili today to the largely ceremonial post of Georgia’s President. Salome Zourabichvili, elected in 2018 to a six-year term, is now refusing to vacate her office. Her primary use of the office recently has been to call out demonstrations, refusing to accept the 16-point election victory by the ruling Georgia Dream party. New demonstrations have broken out today.
Earlier this week, Zourrabichvili told Radio France Internationale (RFI) that she will not step down until new elections are held: “the elections, at that time, can legitimately elect a new President to whom I will happily give way.” TASS reported yesterday that she made a televised address, proclaiming: “I am not going anywhere. I am not leaving. I have been asked about this repeatedly. I am here and I will stay.” Today’s demonstrators were heard chanting, “Salome! Salome!” Arrests of violent protesters over the last weeks have found about 30% are foreigners.
The new President Kavelashvili, a former MP and well-known Georgian football player, used to be a member of the Georgian Dream before joining the newly-created People’s Party in the summer of 2022. The People’s Party, which holds eight seats in Parliament, is a part of the ruling coalition.
With unsuccessful demonstrations and less and less operating room for Zourabichvili, a major concern is the role of agents provocateurs, as in Kiev in 2014, to provoke chaos by shooting at both demonstrators and police. Mamuka Mamulashvili’s Georgian Legion is the central suspect in those 2014 shootings and there are reports of members coming back from Ukraine to the Tbilisi demonstrations. Also, commanders of other Georgian units fighting for Kiev—e.g., the Caucasian Legion and Black Eagle—have supported redeployment to the demonstrations.
Of note, Zourabichvili seems to have reacted to the reports that they seek “a signal” from her. About 10 days ago, she warned protesters: “I can warn you that I have received several reports in various forms that the Georgian military from Ukraine are preparing or have arrived to join this protest as military.” She proclaimed that such reports are a provocation by the government: “This is a direct provocation, this is not happening, don’t believe it, this is directed against the protest. This is what worries the ruling party the most.”
