Georgian Ruling Party Targets Opposition Groups
The leader of Georgia’s ruling party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, has announced a new law that targets opposition groups. The “successor parties law” aims to ban political forces deemed “hostile” to the state.
According to Mdinaradze, the law will target groups with goals and activities similar to those of the United National Movement (UNM). He described these groups as “anti-Georgian, anti-constitutional, anti-national, and criminal.” The ruling party also plans to appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the declaration of the UNM as unconstitutional.
The potential targets of the law are four main opposition political forces that passed the threshold in last year’s parliamentary elections. Mdinaradze called these groups the “collective UNM” and said their members would no longer be allowed to participate in elections.
Mdinaradze accused these groups of operating with a common hostile purpose against the country and compared them to the UNM, which he described as “outstanding for outrageous crimes committed in the past.” He stated that these groups must leave politics if they want a real opposition to emerge.
The mandate of the temporary parliamentary investigative commission has been extended to cover the period from 2003 to the present. This includes actions taken by the ruling party since it came to power in 2012. Mdinaradze accused opposition figures of continuing anti-state actions, including efforts to violently change Georgia’s constitutional order.
Georgian prosecutors have launched an investigation into opposition leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze for refusing to appear before the investigative commission. They could face fines or up to a year in prison.
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