President Salome Zourabichvili stated that all efforts, including those of political parties, should focus on ensuring that the Constitutional Court convenes to review the lawsuit seeking to annul the election results. According to the President, a "positive resolution" of the lawsuit would restore the country to constitutional order.
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“The first stage, the action that should begin - and will begin - this evening in Batumi, is to put pressure on the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court and its judges have a significant opportunity to resolve a deep crisis in the country.
Instead, the Constitutional Court is doing nothing and is not holding a session. Therefore, all the efforts of political parties, society, activists, judges, and lawyers in the coming days should focus on scheduling a session and ensuring the Constitutional Court considers the filed lawsuit, whose positive resolution will return us to the constitutional framework,” President Salome Zourabichvili said at today’s briefing.
“Status quo ante,” she noted. According to her, the October 26 elections did not take place, and the parliament is not legitimate.
“The old parliament will return, and we will have a transitional and stable movement toward new elections. The first stage is this constitutional claim, but beyond that, we have only one demand, which is also a constitutional demand:
When elections were not held, when elections were rigged, when the people’s vote was stolen, the only stable, peaceful solution was new elections. No one has proposed anything else; all other paths lead to greater instability.
If we want to lead the country toward peace, we must allow its population to regain its voice and express its true will again, free from rigging.
Everyone, especially the political parties and NGOs involved in this process, must work together to define the conditions for new elections. This is essential to avoid repeating the same mistakes and to prevent the same opportunities for rigging. There are several concrete steps that must be taken to secure these elections.
Political and public forces must agree on this so that we can present a plan for safeguarding the elections, even before the technical mission prepared by the European Union arrives,” Salome Zourabichvili stated.
The President filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court on November 19, demanding that the final results of the parliamentary elections be declared unconstitutional due to violations of the constitutional principles of secrecy and universality in the elections. Opposition deputies of the 10th Parliament filed the same request with the court.
On November 25, the Georgian Dream party convened the first session of the 11th Parliament and recognized the authority of all 150 members. On November 28, it expressed confidence in the newly composed government. Constitutional experts explain that the Parliament did not have the right to recognize the authority of individuals whose election legitimacy is being challenged in the Constitutional Court. Consequently, the Parliament and all its decisions are considered illegal.
