Georgian Court Begins Hearing Lawsuit Seeking Ban on Five Main Opposition Parties; Ruling Due by June 2027
TBILISI — A court in Georgia opened hearings on Wednesday, October 21, in a lawsuit filed by the government seeking outright bans on the five main opposition parties, in a move that civil society groups say presages the beginning of one-party rule in the South Caucasus country, Reuters reported. The Constitutional Court in the Black Sea city of Batumi will meet for three days to review the suit, first filed by the ruling Georgian Dream party a year ago. The court, whose ruling is final and cannot be appealed in Georgia, must give its decision by June 2027.
The lawsuit marks the culmination of government efforts to crack down on the political opposition since Georgian Dream clinched victory in a 2024 parliamentary election that the opposition says was rigged, Reuters reported. Georgian Dream, in power since 2012, is seeking to outlaw the five parties on the grounds that they pose "a real threat to the constitutional order". "The ruling is about depriving a large part of Georgian society of genuine political choice and fundamentally changing the nature of the country's political system," said Giorgi Butikashvili, the foreign secretary of the Ahali-Coalition for Change, a party named in the lawsuit. Rights groups and the European Union, which Georgia is seeking to join, have also condemned Georgian Dream's move.
Once among the most democratic and pro-Western of the successor states to emerge from the Soviet Union, Georgia has turned increasingly authoritarian and deepened ties with Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Reuters reported. Georgian Dream says it is protecting the country from opposition figures who it says are trying to seize power and foment a catastrophic war with Russia, which fought and won a short war with Georgia in 2008.
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Photo: 图：格鲁吉亚巴统市景（资料图，宪法法院听证在巴统举行）。照片：Giorgi Balakhadze，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons。Cityscape of Batumi, Georgia (file photo; the Constitutional Court hearings are held in Batumi). Photo: Giorgi Balakhadze, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
