A former Manchester Metropolis soccer participant is about to be Georgia’s subsequent president after the ruling occasion chosen him as its candidate.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, who additionally performed for Georgia’s nationwide staff, is sort of sure to be elected to the largely ceremonial place.
The brand new president shall be chosen by the 300-seat electoral school, which is essentially managed by the ruling Georgian Dream occasion.
Their success in final month’s parliamentary election has been disputed by European election observers, who’ve described cases of bribery, double voting and bodily violence.
The victory sparked protests and led to the opposition boycotting parliament.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream of changing into more and more authoritarian and tilted in the direction of Moscow.
Mr Kavelashvili informed reporters “radicalisation and polarisation” within the nation have been fuelled from overseas.
He accused the outgoing president of violating the structure and declared that he would “restore the presidency to its constitutional framework”.
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Mikheil Kavelashvili performed for ManvCity within the 1995-6 season. Pic: Motion Photos/Reuters
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Mr Kavelashvili was elected to parliament in Georgia in 2016. File pic: AP
Georgian Dream just lately pushed by way of legal guidelines much like these utilized by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
In June, the EU suspended Georgia’s membership utility course of indefinitely after parliament handed a regulation requiring organisations that obtain greater than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power”.
That’s much like a Russian regulation used to discredit teams important of the federal government.
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Protesters conflict with police in Georgia
On Monday President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the official election outcomes, refused to recognise the parliament’s legitimacy. Her six-year time period expires subsequent month.
She was elected by fashionable vote, however Georgia has authorized constitutional modifications that abolished the direct election of the president.
As an alternative the brand new president shall be chosen by a vote from an electoral school, consisting of 300 members of parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures.
Georgian Dream has a majority within the school, making the approval of Mr Kavelashvili’s candidacy all however sure.
Mr Kavelashvili was a striker for Manchester Metropolis within the 1995-6 season and performed for a number of golf equipment within the Swiss Tremendous League. He was elected to parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket.
In 2022, he co-founded the Folks’s Energy political motion, which has grow to be recognized for its sturdy anti-Western rhetoric. It’s aligned with the Georgian Dream occasion in parliament.
