Ruling party head: President Zourabichvili might again “grossly violate” Constitution following failed impeachment

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said he “did not rule out” that Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili could “grossly violate” the Constitution again in the future after the ruling party earlier today fell short of votes for President’s impeachment in the Parliament.

He noted Zourabichvili’s “goal” was “to try to withdraw Georgia from the constitutional framework”, adding the ruling team would not allow it.

• Ruling party falls short of votes for Georgian President’s impeachment in Parliament

In his speech in the Parliament before the vote, Kobakhidze also claimed that future violations of the Constitution “may already have the signs of a criminal offence”.

After the failed impeachment, Zourabichvili will be the President of Georgia only “formally” for the ruling party and the majority of the MPs, who voted for her dismissal, he stressed. 

The impeachment process has had very important consequences. Firstly, a multiple, serious blatant violation of the Constitution by the President of Georgia was established, which will have serious, preventive results, and secondly, we once again saw the lustration of the alliance between Zurabishvili and the rest of the radical opposition”, Kobakhidze noted.

The United National Movement - the largest opposition group in the Parliament - and Strategy Agmashenebeli boycotted the impeachment session in the legislative body.

Instead of the mandatory 100 votes, the impeachment process failed after only 86 MPs voted for the dismissal of the President.

• Constitutional Court says President violated Constitution through unauthorised foreign visits

Zourabichvili was attending the session that came following the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Monday that backed her impeachment vote for violating the country’s Constitution through recent visits to Europe without the Government's authorisation.  

In his comments following the Court’s ruling earlier this week, Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of GD, admitted his party “practically had no chances” of gathering enough votes to remove the President from office, but added the voting was being held as a matter of principle.