Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze Supports Potential Bans on Opposition Parties
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, August 23, 2024
On August 20, the political council of the ruling party Georgian Dream issued a statement urging the public to participate in the upcoming October 26 elections. The party emphasized the need to secure a constitutional majority to pursue its political agenda.
According to the statement, if Georgian Dream achieves a constitutional majority, it plans to initiate legal processes aimed at declaring the opposition parties, particularly the United National Movement (UNM) and its affiliates, unconstitutional. The statement warned, "As soon as the constitutional majority is obtained, a legal process will be initiated, as a result of which the United National Movement and all its satellite or successor parties will be declared unconstitutional."
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze supported the party's stance, framing the potential banning of political parties as a democratic process. He argued that such actions are justified when there is a legal basis, stating, "When there is a legal basis, it should be done in a democratic state."
Kobakhidze compared the situation to party bans in Ukraine and Moldova, stating that these actions were positively evaluated by the European Union. "Saakashvili's regime is not a Georgian state. We are talking about the trial of Saakashvili's regime, and of course, this process cannot pose any threat to our national interests," Kobakhidze said.
He further justified the potential banning of what he described as "illegitimate, unconstitutional" parties by saying, "This is a normal democratic procedure, when all legal grounds are in place. When a political party creates problems for the national interests of the state, or is anti-constitutional, anti-democratic in its content, its ban is the responsibility of the state to uphold its democratic system."
