Sawt Falasteen - Georgia parliament convenes amid legitimacy crisis

Political turmoil has rocked the Black Sea nation since an October 26 election, won by the governing Georgian Dream party but contested by pro-Western opposition parties.

Calling the results "illegitimate," they have refused to take their seats in the new parliament.

Pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili -- also at loggerheads with the governing party -- has filed a lawsuit with the constitutional court seeking to annul the election results.

Zurabishvili, who has largely ceremonial powers, has refused to issue the required presidential decree to convene the legislature.

She has accused Russia of vote interference -- claims rejected by Moscow.

The ruling Georgian Dream party, which secured 89 seats in the 150-member chamber, says the vote was free and fair.

Party lawmakers gathered at mid-day for an inaugural session that was boycotted by the opposition.

They voted 88-0 to approve the mandates of all 150 members of the new parliament.

But the opposition boycott has put the legislature at risk of becoming a one-party body -- a potentially significant blow to its political legitimacy.

- 'Coup' -

Zurabishvili declared Monday's plenary session "unconstitutional," saying "massive electoral fraud has undermined its legitimacy".

"Georgian Dream slaves are killing our constitution and making a mockery of our parliament," she said in a post on X.

A leading constitutional law expert, Vakhushti Menabde, has said the "new parliament cannot convene until the constitutional court delivers its ruling on Zurabishvili's lawsuit".

Amid a heavy police presence, demonstrators gathered outside parliament on Sunday night, setting up camps and blocking traffic along Tbilisi's main road.

"As of today, Georgia doesn't have a legitimate parliament," one demonstrator, 27-year-old painter Giorgi Nikabadze, told AFP.

"This is basically a coup by Georgian Dream, and that's what we are protesting here."

Georgian Dream, in power for more than a decade, has been accused of democratic backsliding, as well as moving Tbilisi away from Europe and closer to Moscow.

The party rejects the accusations and says its "top priority" is to secure EU membership for the nation of around 3.7 million.

Its election campaign used images of Ukrainian cities destroyed by Russia's invasion to warn against voting for the opposition, attacked Western-funded rights groups and pushed through anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Georgia fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 over control of separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the two countries still have no formal diplomatic relations.

- Presidential selection looms -

After the vote, a group of Georgia's leading election monitors said they had evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud that swayed results in favour of Georgian Dream.

Brussels had warned Tbilisi that the conduct of the election would be decisive for its prospects of joining the bloc.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last week "the election will have to be investigated" and announced Brussels was sending a mission to Georgia.

During Monday's session, Georgian Dream MPs voted to re-appoint speaker Shalva Papuashvili to a new term.

On Friday, Papuashvili said MPs would vote in the coming days for Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to continue as the head of government.

The right to nominate a prime minister is held by Georgian Dream's billionaire founder and "honorary chairman" Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely regarded as pulling the strings of power without any official government position.

He received a standing ovation from lawmakers during Monday's session.

MPs will also set the date for an indirect presidential election, expected by the end of the year -- with Zurabishvili set to lose office.

As a result of constitutional reform adopted in 2017, the next president will -- for the first time -- be elected by an electoral college consisting of lawmakers and local officials rather than a direct popular vote.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST