Overview
- Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Oct. 28 that Georgian Dream has lodged a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to outlaw three opposition forces.
- The case targets the Coalition for Change, Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement, and the Strong Georgia bloc, with UNM’s founder serving a sentence expected to run to 2034.
- Ruling figures say the suit relies on findings from a parliamentary commission into alleged wrongdoing under Saakashvili, and Interpress quoted Papuashvili calling the parties a real threat to the constitutional order.
- Strong Georgia’s Irakli Kupradze called the move a decisive blow to democracy and pledged resistance, as several senior opposition figures remain jailed and protest arrests have increased over the past year.
- The push follows a law passed earlier this year that lowered barriers to banning parties and comes as Georgia’s EU accession talks are frozen and the government emphasizes closer ties with Russia.