Anti-Western former footballer Kavelashvili elected president of Georgia

Anti-Western former footballer Kavelashvili elected president of Georgia
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Mikheil Kavelashvili at the end of November, during a party congress of Georgian Dream

Autovantra News•today, 12:01•Amended today, 12:33

Mikheil Kavelashvili has been elected president of Georgia as expected. The election took place for the first time by the electoral college. After an amendment to the Georgian constitution, citizens could no longer vote for a new president for the first time.

Hundreds of people are protesting in front of the parliament building. Some play a game of football in the street and raise red cards towards the parliament building to ridicule former Manchester City footballer Kavelashvili.

The majority of the members of the electoral college are from the pro-Russian ruling party Georgian Dream. The parliamentary elections at the end of October were won by a landslide by that party, which led to protests. The opposition and independent observers suspected fraud. The European Parliament therefore wants the candidate member of the EU to organize new elections within a year.

Fraud

The current president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, has said that she will not resign. Her term officially ends on Monday, but she does not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections.

Kavelashvili’s inauguration is on December 29, but Zurabishvili says he wants to stop that. She first demands new parliamentary elections under international supervision, so that it can be guaranteed that no fraud is committed.

Correspondent Mitra Nazar about the new president:

“Micheil Kavelashvili once played for the Georgian national football team, and also for Manchester City for a while. In 2016 he entered politics and joined Georgian Dream. Later he started his own party, with strong anti-Western, pro- Russian positions.

As a parliamentarian, he was notorious for taking extreme positions against LGBTI people, insulting opposition members and spreading anti-Western conspiracy theories. He’s the one who came up with the idea for a law against “foreign agents.” It is also called the ‘Russian law’ because it is copied from the law that the Kremlin uses to silence critical voices.

Kavelashvili is controversial and the subject of ridicule among protesters. He would not have been very talented as a professional footballer. People also call him ill-mannered and uneducated. The ex-footballer once wanted to become president of the Georgian Football Federation, but could not get that job because he did not have higher education.

The fact that the ruling party nominates him as president is a real sign for critical Georgians that the government is showing its true face and that the pro-Russian course can now no longer be denied. He is considered a puppet of the autocratic oligarch and leader of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who calls the shots behind the scenes.”

It has been unrest in Georgia since October. Almost every day, citizens take to the streets to protest the results of the parliamentary elections. Two weeks ago, thousands of demonstrators marched in Tbilisi. They threw fireworks at the parliament building and riot police used water cannons.

The immediate reason for this new wave of demonstrations was the announcement by Georgian Dream to suspend negotiations on accession to the EU until 2028. Hundreds of people were arrested.