Ex-footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili named president

A former Manchester Metropolis footballer has been appointed president by Georgia’s disputed parliament, after 17 days of pro-EU protests which have swept this nation’s cities and cities.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, now 53, is a former MP from the more and more authoritarian ruling Georgian Dream celebration and was the one candidate for the job.

On Saturday, 224 out of 225 members of Georgia’s electoral school voted for him.

The 4 fundamental opposition teams have rejected Kavelashvili and have boycotted parliament, insisting that the elections held in October have been rigged.

Giant crowds of protesters, dealing with freezing temperatures, gathered exterior parliament from the early hours of Saturday morning forward of the vote.

Georgia’s outgoing pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, has condemned Kavelashvili’s election as a travesty, insisting she holds Georgia’s solely remaining authentic establishment.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused Zourabichvili of attempting to hurt Georgia’s pursuits, emphasising that when her time period of workplace ends on 29 December, she should retire.

“We’ve got very robust state establishments, so we definitely don’t have any issue in bringing the state of affairs below full management,” he was quoted as saying on Friday.

Celebration colleague Nino Tsilosani informed reporters that Zourabichvili was now not president within the eyes of the general public.

Georgia is a parliamentary democracy with the president the pinnacle of state, and the prime minister the pinnacle of Parliament.

Protests towards Georgian Dream started instantly after the October elections however they burst into life on 28 November when the federal government introduced it was placing EU accession negotiations on maintain till 2028.

An amazing majority of Georgians again the nation’s path to the European Union and it’s a part of the structure.

Each evening, the principle avenue exterior parliament fills with protesters draped in EU flags, demanding new elections.

The evening earlier than the vote, the capital Tbilisi was convulsed by pop-up protests involving IT specialists, public sector employees, artistic trade professionals, actors and attorneys.

“We’re standing right here to create a authorized state as soon as and for all, to respect the provisions of the structure and human rights,” mentioned lawyer Davit Kikaleishvili, 47.

Kavelashvili is a founding father of the Folks’s Energy celebration, identified for being the principle voice for anti-Western propaganda in Georgia.

He has accused opposition events of performing as a “fifth column” directed from overseas, and described President Zourabichvili as a “chief agent”.

Kavelashvili moved into politics after he was disqualified from searching for the management of the Georgian soccer federation as a result of he lacked the {qualifications}.

Though his celebration ran alongside Georgian Dream within the October elections, it has now determined to behave in parliament as a “wholesome opposition”, to fill the place of the “so-called radical opposition funded by overseas forces”.

A Folks’s Energy celebration MP, Guram Macharashvili, who introduced on 13 December that his faction would go away the ruling parliamentary majority, informed the BBC that what was taking place within the nation was an “artificially created disaster characterised by the affect of overseas powers”.

Macharashvili and Kavelashvili are the architects of Georgia’s controversial “overseas brokers” legislation, seen by the nation’s opposition as Russian-style laws.

When requested what “wholesome opposition” means, Macharashvili mentioned: “Opposition doesn’t essentially imply opposition on all points, it doesn’t imply solely cooperation with foreigners. It means competitors with the ruling celebration to make higher proposals on what’s finest for Georgia’s future.”

Georgian Dream, based by billionaire businessman and former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, has been accused of dragging the nation again into Russia’s sphere of affect.

Each the EU and US have condemned the federal government for democratic backsliding and greater than 460 individuals have been detained throughout Georgia over the previous two weeks, in line with Transparency Worldwide.

Greater than 300 have been ill-treated or tortured, the organisation says, together with dozens of individuals from Georgian media. Final weekend, thugs have been filmed attacking a TV reporter and cameraman.

The EU has condemned the “brutal, illegal pressure from the police” and overseas ministers are attributable to contemplate measures towards the federal government after they meet on Monday.

The US state division has already imposed visa restrictions on Georgian officers, together with authorities ministers and police.

Protesters have referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to impose sanctions on prime authorities officers in addition to Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s strongest man.

Professional-government teams have additionally waged a marketing campaign of harassment in the direction of civil society activists, beating them exterior houses, and finishing up arbitrary arrests.

“There’s systematic torture, inhuman and degrading therapy of residents,” mentioned former public rights defender Nino Lomjaria.

Theatre employees who joined the protests on Friday chanted: “The police are all over the place, justice is nowhere.”