Constitutional Court in Georgia Hears Case on Banning Opposition Parties

In the Georgian city of Batumi, the Constitutional Court began hearings on Wednesday regarding a lawsuit filed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which seeks to ban the country's five main opposition parties. Civil society organizations and the opposition state that this initiative is a harbinger of a shift toward one-party rule in the country.

The Constitutional Court will conduct examinations over three days as part of the lawsuit filed by the ruling Georgian Dream party a year ago. The court's decision, which is final and cannot be appealed in Georgia, must be announced by June 2027. The ruling party demands the closure of the five parties in question on the grounds that they pose a real threat to the constitutional order.

Giorgi Butikashvili, foreign relations secretary of the Ahali-Coalition for Change targeted in the case, stated that this move aims to deprive a large segment of Georgian society of their true political choice and fundamentally change the nature of the country's political system. Rights groups and the European Union have also reacted to this step by Georgian Dream.