On Wednesday, Georgia’s Constitutional Court began hearing a high-profile case seeking to ban five opposition parties. The lawsuit, if upheld, would create a virtually unprecedented political reality in the history of independent Georgia.
After discussions that began in 2024, the lawsuit was first filed with the court by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its parliamentary allies, often referred to as satellite parties, in October 2025. The lawsuit was subsequently amended twice, with Georgian Dream adding two more opposition parties to the original three it wanted to be declared unconstitutional.
Starting as a piece of Georgian Dream campaign rhetoric, the plans have now evolved into a real judicial push — and one of the ruling party’s most controversial undertakings to this date.
Here’s what you need to know.
Which parties are being targeted?
The oldest party on the list is United National Movement (UNM), founded by the now-jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili. The party came to power following the 2003 Rose Revolution, and governed Georgia for nine years, from 2004 to 2012, before losing the parliamentary elections to Georgian Dream.
The lawsuit also targets the Coalition for Change, formed ahead of the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections by Ahali, Girchi — More Freedom, and Droa. The coalition’s largest member, Ahali, was co-founded by former UNM leader Nika Melia and UNM-era official and then media manager Nika Gvaramia, months before the coalition was formed.
Although Ahali and the UNM are named in the lawsuit under the coalition names they used in the 2024 vote, it is apparent they are the main targets. The lawsuit explicitly states that separate bans are not sought for their smaller coalition partners because of their limited size.
The lawsuit also targets Lelo, a party founded in 2019 by Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, co-founders of one of Georgia’s largest banks, TBC. Both founders have since become prominent figures in Georgian opposition politics.
Another party facing a potential ban is For Georgia, founded in 2021 by Giorgi Gakharia, who served as interior minister and later prime minister under Georgian Dream. Gakharia resigned as prime minister in February 2021 following an internal dispute with the ruling party (ostensibly over Gakharia’s unwillingness to approve the arrest of the then-leader of the UNM), launching For Georgia in May that year.
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The fifth and final party is the Federalists, founded shortly before the 2024 elections by Giga Bokeria, who served as secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council under the UNM government, and his wife, media personality Tamar Chergoleishvili. They established the party after an internal disagreement within European Georgia, the party they had previously represented.
If the lawsuit is upheld, all four parties that crossed the electoral threshold in the most recent parliamentary elections, either independently or as part of an alliance with other parties, would be banned. The Federalists did not participate in the elections.
‘According to the regime’s own count, [the four groups] received more than 800,000 votes. This means the votes of people who chose these parties are being invalidated’, Chergoleishvili said on Wednesday, the first day of the court hearings.
What’s the justification for the legal case?
Georgian Dream first announced its intention to ban opposition parties ahead of the 2024 elections, making it one of its campaign promises. The ruling party said at the time it would ask the Constitutional Court to ban the ‘collective UNM’ — a term it uses to group various opposition entities together.
Georgian Dream failed to secure a constitutional majority in the 2024 elections, but has nonetheless gone forward with its plan to crack down on the UNM and other key opposition parties.
The ruling party has repeatedly argued that the UNM represented a criminal regime during its time in power, claiming it committed human rights abuses, corruption, and actions threatening the country’s territorial integrity.
Georgian Dream has also alleged that the other parties named in the lawsuit have acted in coordination with the UNM and have sought to destabilise the country since the UNM lost power in 2012. To support its claim that they are acting in unison, Georgian Dream has pointed to instances of cooperation between the parties, including alliances and joint participation in political platforms.
OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia
Following the 2024 parliamentary elections, Georgian Dream created an ‘investigative’ parliamentary commission, which was initially mandated to cover just the UNM years in power. It was later expanded, however, to cover the period up to the present day — effectively giving Georgian Dream free reign to target virtually any opposition figure.
The commission ultimately produced a nearly 500-page report making severe allegations against all its major opponents. It is this report that the constitutional lawsuit has been based off of.
More broadly, Georgian Dream officials have also invoked efforts by other European countries to ban parties in their own countries.
In October 2024, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili claimed the EU’s criticism of Georgia’s party ban pledge was indicative of its double standards towards the country.
Papuashvili cited the German authorities’ long-running antipathy with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Ukraine’s ban of the country’s Communist Party in 2015, and Moldova’s 2023 decision to bar the pro-Russian Sor party.
‘Despite the analogies in democratic countries, our intention has been widely criticised by our foreign partners’, Papuashvili added.
What do critics say?
The targeted parties, along with other opponents and critics of Georgian Dream, view the proceedings as part of the ruling party’s effort to demonstrate and consolidate power.
An opposition alliance formed in March 2026 by several parties to coordinate their strategies has described the current lawsuit as a ‘reckless move’ that, in its view, ‘only exposes the crisis of legitimacy’ facing Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
‘[It] confirms that he has usurped power illegitimately and that maintaining it depends solely on bans and repression’, the alliance noted in a statement on 15 October. They further announced the launch of the ‘Georgia Without Ivanishvili’ campaign, calling on Georgians to gather in Tbilisi on 25 October, and announced a larger rally for a month later.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, around 20 civil society organisations warned that banning political parties would ‘formalise a one-party dictatorship’.
‘This action will further undermine the already shaken public trust in the electoral system, render future elections meaningless, and eliminate the prospect of a peaceful and democratic change of government’, they said.
The process has also drawn criticism from EU institutions, whose relations with Georgian Dream have become increasingly strained over the past several years.
OC MediaRafig Shahbazov
On 19 October, European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said that the proceedings, ‘alongside recent legal amendments and earlier statements about banning opposition parties’, suggest a ‘troubling instrumentalisation of the justice system’.
In response, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry urged EU representatives to refrain from actions that ‘could prejudge ongoing judicial proceedings or be perceived as interference in the work of independent constitutional institutions’.
What will happen next?
The last time a similar case took place was in 1991, when the Supreme Court banned Georgia’s Communist Party. Following the decision, the parliamentary mandates of Communist MPs, which they had received as a result of the 1990 parliamentary elections when Georgia was still formally the part of the USSR, were revoked by parliamentary vote.
The judicial resolution of this case could take several months, and in theory, the judges have until June 2027 to make a decision. In either case, the decision will be made ahead of the next scheduled parliamentary elections in 2028.
Most expect the court to rule in favour of the government. While in theory politicians from the banned parties could simply form new parties, legislative changes passed in 2025 gave the Constitutional Court the authority to ban a party if its goals and composition match those of a party that has already been banned.
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With many of the opposition party leaders currently facing a variety of criminal charges, their personal political futures remain uncertain as well. The explicit banning of individuals is not inherent to either the 2025 legislative changes or the lawsuit, although the plaintiff can seek that end if asked.
If the court decides to ban the five parties, they cannot appeal the decision.
Should these steps come to fruition, Georgia faces the real possibility that the 2028 parliamentary elections could be essentially uncontested, effectively giving Georgian Dream another four-year term, until 2032 — 20 years since the party first took power.