The hearing on the case to ban opposition parties, scheduled for tomorrow, 9 November, at the Constitutional Court of Georgia, will not take place.
According to the court’s press office, the session was adjourned due to the health condition of one of the judges. It is currently unknown when hearings will resume.
As a reminder, the Constitutional Court is reviewing a lawsuit filed by the ruling Georgian Dream party seeking to outlaw five opposition parties:
- United National Movement
- Coalition for Change
- Lelo – Strong Georgia
- The Federalists
- Gakharia – For Georgia.
These represent the country’s primary pro-Western opposition forces.
The ruling party maintains that Article 23 of the Constitution provides legal grounds for the dissolution of these political groups as an “existential threat to statehood.”
What Georgian Dream accuses the opposition of:
- United National Movement, Coalition for Change (including Girchi – More Freedom and Droa!), and The Federalists: the plaintiffs accuse them of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, refusing to condemn systemic human rights abuses during the 2004–2012 period, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the current authorities, acting against the country’s territorial integrity, and attempting to drag Georgia into an armed conflict with Russia.
- Strong Georgia – Lelo (the Khazaradze–Japaridze team): the party is accused of failing to recognize the legitimacy of the government, supporting the idea of establishing a “technical government” in 2022, and backing actions aimed at regime change between 2019 and 2025.
- For Georgia (led by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia): the party is charged with failing to distance itself from the events surrounding the violent dispersal of protests on 20 June 2019 and the arrest of Nika Melia in 2021, assisting “external forces,” and supporting the installation of a police post in the village of Chorchana, which, according to Georgian Dream, harmed the country’s territorial integrity.