New Georgian President elected by electoral college

Mikheil Kavelashvili, the ruling Georgian Dream party’s nominee, a member of the country’s Parliament and former national football team player, on Saturday was elected as the sixth President of Georgia by the electoral college, amid the ongoing protests against the Government’s suspension of the European Union accession talks until 2028.

Under new rules defined by the Constitution, the President is no longer elected directly, through universal suffrage. Instead, the Central Election Commission formed an electoral college, consisting of 300 members, to elect the President.

The electoral college includes 150 members of the Parliament, while the other 150 consist of 20 members from the Supreme Council of the Abkhazia region, 21 from the Supreme Council of the Adjara region, and 109 formed from representatives of local self-government bodies. 

Kavelashvili was elected as the President of Georgia as a result of the voting procedure held at the plenary session hall of the Parliament, with 225 votes cast, 224 of which were in Kavelashvili’s favour and one was declared invalid.

Ada Marshania, one of the representatives from the Supreme Council of the Abkhazia region in the electoral college, cast a blank paper, rejecting Kavelashvili’s candidacy and two more members from the same region boycotted the elections.

The domestic opposition parties, which secured 61 seats in the October parliamentary elections but refused their mandates over their allegation of the “rigged” vote, did not participate in the presidential voting procedure amid the ongoing protests.

The President’s inauguration is scheduled for December 29.