Georgian leadership seeks to ban opposition party after October vote

The increasingly authoritarian leadership in Georgia is threatening to ban the main opposition party following the parliamentary election in October, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Friday.

Kobakhidze stated that declaring the United National Movement unconstitutional is crucial for creating a healthy democratic system in Georgia once and for all. For this to happen, the ruling party Georgian Dream needs to achieve a constitutional majority in the election on October 26, he said, according to media reports.

The United National Movement is the party of former President Mikheil Saakazhvili, jailed by Georgia's current leadership.

Polls put Georgian Dream at around 60%. In the 2020 parliamentary election, the party fell just short of a two-thirds majority.

Despite fierce protests, the party recently pushed through a law modelled after Russian regulations intended to curb the alleged foreign influence on civil society.

The EU had originally made Georgia a candidate to join the bloc, in a decision in late 2023, but has since frozen the process due to this law.