Ex-PM Gakharia accuses Georgian Dream of planning ‘fake pluralism’ through ‘pro Russian’ ‘proxy groups’

Georgia’s opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia has accused the ruling authorities of seeking to eliminate genuine political competition and replace opposition parties with proxy groups to create the appearance of political pluralism.

In a social media post on Tuesday, the leader of For Georgia said the government’s own propaganda was exposing its alleged plan to establish a political system under its control while maintaining a facade of democratic competition.

Gakharia cited statements by the “pro-Russian” movement Neutral Georgia, which described removing the existing opposition groups from politics as a necessary condition for new parties to emerge and for “healthy competition” to become possible.

He argued that portraying constitutional political activity as a crime, while claiming that banning opposition parties would improve competition, revealed the authorities’ true intention.

“The regime and its pro-Russian proxy parties are exposing their real objective - establishing complete control behind a false façade of pluralism,” Gakharia wrote.

Georgia’s Constitutional Court is considering a lawsuit seeking to declare five opposition parties unconstitutional and ban them. The ruling Georgian Dream party argues that the parties threaten the country’s constitutional order, while opposition leaders have condemned the proceedings as an attempt to suppress political competition.