Georgian Dream moves to ban Saakashvili’s party from politics
Georgian opposition to be declared unconstitutional
According to Mamuka Mdinaradze, Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, the party intends to file a lawsuit seeking to have several opposition parties declared unconstitutional.
Among them is the United National Movement, founded by Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili. If declared unconstitutional, the party would be barred from participating in the autumn 2025 local elections.
Mdinaradze said the basis for the case in the Constitutional Court would likely be the findings of an investigation into the party’s activities over the past 20 years.
Georgian Dream’s executive secretary Mamuka Mdinaradze announced that the party intends to petition the Constitutional Court to declare Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) — and its allied parties — unconstitutional. He said the conclusion of a parliamentary investigative commission already provides a solid legal basis for such a move.
“The collective United National Movement will no longer be able to take part in local or any other elections in the country. These parties will be declared anti-Georgian, anti-constitutional and criminal — and their activities banned,” Mdinaradze stated.
According to him, UNM are the “authors of monstrous crimes of the past” and, along with their “accomplices” in other parties, act with “hostile intent toward the country.” Therefore, he argued, they must be removed from the political arena.
“Without this, we cannot truly build a national, strong, action-oriented opposition — one that is not carrying out tasks handed down from abroad. Politicians burdened by the sins of the past have completely taken over the opposition field and leave no room for anyone else to participate in the democratic process as a genuine alternative to the ruling party. Meanwhile, this country is full of talented, educated, and patriotic people,” Mdinaradze said, justifying Georgian Dream’s radical proposal.
A temporary parliamentary investigative commission is already operating in Georgia to examine the activities of the “regime and its political figures” during 2003–2012 — the period when Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) was in power.
However, Mamuka Mdinaradze has announced that the commission’s mandate will be expanded to cover the entire period from 2003 to the present day.
