Georgian Government Initiates Sweeping Changes in Preparation For Local Elections

Executive Summary:

• Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act on April 1, expanding control over media and individuals by criminalizing foreign-funded activity, leading to media closures, and provoking international condemnation for eroding democratic freedoms.
• Georgian Dream has initiated sweeping personnel changes and legislative restrictions, including limiting election observation rights and expanding an investigative commission that threatens opposition leaders with prosecution and possible party bans.
• The ruling Georgian Dream party’s strategy increasingly aligns with authoritarian practices, aiming to dismantle political opposition, dominate elections, and abandon its democratic trajectory and Western alliances.

On April 1, Georgia’s one-party parliament approved the “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (Parliament of Georgia, February 19; 1tv.ge, April 1). Unlike the 2024 law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence,” this act applies not only to Western-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) but also to individuals (see EDM, April 24, 2024, February 11; Interpressnews.ge, May 14, 2024). The act outlines both hefty fines and imprisonment for refusing to register as a foreign agent. The Georgian government claims this act is analogous to the United States’ Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Georgian parliament also approved amendments and additions to the broadcasting law. The law stipulates that Georgian media is prohibited from receiving foreign funding (1tv.ge, April 1). A day after the adoption of this law, individual broadcasting programs began to close, since many Georgian media outlets existed only because of foreign funding.

Georgian Dream’s actions have been met with condemnation from Western partners. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, and individual countries including France, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and others expressed their indignation at the rollback of democracy in Georgia (European Parliament, October 9, 2024; see EDM, January 13, March 12; YouTube/@oscepa, February 21; The Permanent Delegation of Norway to the OSCE, April 10; Civil Georgia, April 15). The United States responded similarly when asked during a State Department briefing by the Georgian publication GLOBALNEWS what the U.S. position is on the current situation in Georgia. The State Department spokesperson responded, “As for the Georgian Dream government’s ongoing anti-democratic actions, as Vice President [J.D.] Vance noted in Munich, a democratic mandate cannot be won by censoring or jailing opponents. Nor can it be won by ignoring the views of a key constituency about who should be part of our shared society” (Globalnews.ge, April 2).

Georgian Dream hoped to reset relations with the Donald Trump Administration (see EDM, April 9). After the State Department’s response, however, Georgian government experts and the media have criticized Washington, claiming that even U.S. President Donald Trump is subordinate to the “global war party” and the “deep state” (Imedi.ge, April 3). Before the above statement from the U.S. State Department, Georgian Dream had asserted that the so-called “global war party” is fighting against them and that U.S. and EU leaders are subordinate to this party, with the exception of the Trump administration  (see EDM, January 13, April 9).

The tightening of legislation is taking place amid significant personnel changes in the Georgian Dream government. On April 2, Grigol Liluashvili, a close associate of the informal leader of Georgia, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, left his post as the head of the Georgian State Security Service because he was to be appointed as the head of the new Ministry of Regional Development (Facebook.com/KobakhidzeOfficial, April 2). The establishment of the Ministry of Regional Development coincides with the approach of local government elections in the autumn of 2025. In response, the civil sector is already calling this new “ministry of elections” and the preparation of falsification of these elections (Interpressnews.ge, April 2). On April 4, Georgia’s parliament approved Anri Okhanashvili, a close associate of Kobakhidze, as head of the Georgian State Security Service. Okhanashvili had held the post of Minister of Justice since November 2024 (Rustavi2.ge, April 4).

On April 4, however, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze changed his mind about appointing Liluashvili to the new position. He stated that he could not agree with Liluashvili on the candidates he proposed for deputy ministers in the new ministry (Netgazeti.ge, April 4). Liluashvili is an influential figure in the Georgian Dream government and has previously been speculated as becoming the future prime minister of Georgia in the Georgian media (Interpressnews.ge, September 9, 2022). Kobakhidze’s backtracking could cause significant upheaval within the ruling elite.

Local observers suggest that one of the reasons for Liluashvili’s removal of the head of the State Security Service could be Russia’s desire to remove people with connections in the United States from key positions in Georgia (Tvpirveli.ge, April 5). In 2024, Liluashvili visited Washington on a special mission, and he has thus far been able to avoid official U.S. sanctions, unlike Ivanishvili and other Georgian Dream leaders (Interpressnews.ge, July 1, 2024; see EDM, October 17, 2024, January 13). Other local observers, however, suspect that the real reason for Liluashvili’s removal from office was not because of a lack of trust in him, but, on the contrary, because of preparations for his potential appointment as prime minister to replace Kobakhidze in the future (Tvpirveli.ge, April 5).

On April 3, the Central Election Commission of Georgia issued a charter that limits the procedure for full-fledged observation of elections. For example, observers at polling stations are now prohibited from requiring voters to check their identity cards (Netgazeti.ge, April 4). Traditionally, the most widespread method of falsifying elections in Georgia is the use of fake identification cards by supporters of the ruling party. One faction of the opposition assumes that these changes are connected with the approaching local elections. The fifth president of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, assumes that the ruling elite of Georgia is “very nervous” and is preparing for repeat parliamentary elections, which both the country’s society and the international community are actively demanding from Georgian Dream. Zourabichvili stated, “they will have to call new elections; we must also be ready; we are ready to defeat the regime” (Interpressnews.ge, April 1).

The conditions under which repeat elections might take place if the ruling Georgian Dream party decides to call them are unknown. At the initiative of the ruling party, an investigative commission began investigating the alleged crimes of the country’s former leaders from 2003 to 2012. On April 1, the commission’s mandate was expanded, and it now also investigates the activities of the opposition after 2012 (1tv.ge, April 1). The commission has already questioned several former high-ranking generals of the Georgian army (TVKavkasia, March 28). Opposition leaders refuse to answer questions from this so-called investigative commission, as they call this process a farce. Georgian Dream has threatened the opposition with prison for failure to appear for questioning by the investigative commission of parliament (Radiotavisupleba.ge, April 2).

Georgian Dream intends to use this commission to expose opposition parties for alleged treason and various crimes, including starting the war against Russia in 2008. Both Ivanishvili and individual leaders of Georgian Dream have long repeated the Kremlin’s narrative that it was not Russia that attacked Georgia in 2008, but, on the contrary, Georgia started a war on its own territory (YouTube/@mematiane7880, August 7, 2020; see EDM, May 1, September 18, 2024).

As a result of the work of this parliamentary investigative commission, Georgian Dream plans to ban all opposition political parties. This means that competitive elections will be practically abolished in Georgia. On March 28, one of the leaders of the ruling party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, officially announced that the government has already initiated a bill to ban opposition parties (Facebook.com/GeorgianDreamOfficial, March 28). This means that all elections in the country could occur under the conditions of one ruling party and with the participation of an artificial opposition created by Georgian Dream. The civil sector predicts that this will lead to the destruction of the opposition and the establishment of a one-party authoritarian rule in the country (Interpressnews.ge, April 7).

Georgian Dream no longer appears focused on voters and public support, but rather on passing new repressive laws that will afford it exclusive opportunities to win all elections that will be held in Georgia from now on. Kobakhidze has already declared that Georgian Dream has hopes to obtain higher results in the coming elections compared to the past parliamentary elections in October 2024 and that the opposition is doomed to failure in all 64 municipalities of the country (Interpressnews.ge, April 5). If Georgian Dream implements this plan, and all opposition parties are banned with Georgian Dream as the only political party standing, then by autumn, the state of Georgian democracy will be in question.