Georgia’s Constitutional Court announced on October 13 that its seven-judge plenum accepted for consideration on the merits the ruling Georgian Dream party’s lawsuit seeking to ban five opposition parties, scheduling the first hearings in October.
The Court started the review after GD resubmitted the claim several times, each time resetting the Court’s maximum nine-month review period as the party kept adding new opposition forces to the appeal. Two judges have prematurely quit the Court since the ruling party announced last year that it would seek to outlaw its opponents through the Court, and three new judges were appointed over the past year, fueling concerns that the ruling party is serious about its stated intentions to ban its opponents.
GD first submitted the appeal last October, citing, among others, human rights records under UNM, the previous administration’s actions related to the 2008 August war, the opposition’s boycott of previous elections, as well as their alleged “support” of “foreign force” in undermining Georgian independence.
Targeted parties:
The lawsuit in its current form targets five parties: United National Movement (UNM), Lelo/Strong Georgia, Ahali/Coalition for Change, Federalists, and For Georgia.
In the first version of the lawsuit submitted in October 2025, Georgian Dream sought to outlaw the UNM, Lelo/Strong Georgia, and Ahali/Coalition for Georgia, three of the four major forces whose alliances crossed the 5% threshold in the disputed parliamentary vote of 2024.
The claim was based on the voluminous report of the GD’s parliamentary commission — the so-called “Tsulukiani Commission” — created to investigate alleged crimes under the UNM rule, but later expanded to include the period after 2012 as well.
The lawsuit initially spared smaller opposition forces, including Droa, Girchi – More Freedom, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, European Georgia, Federalists, and Republicans, part of whom ran in electoral alliances with three major forces targeted in the first lawsuit. GD warned at the time, however, that those smaller groups it said were “closely related” to three main targets could face similar action if they gained more influence.
It also spared For Georgia, a party founded by former Georgian Dream Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. The party had also crossed the 5% threshold in 2024 and joined the opposition’s parliamentary boycott, but reversed the boycott a year later and took up MP mandates in October 2025.
However, the lawsuit was later expanded in April 2026 to include the Federalist Party, led by Giga Bokeria and Tamar Chergoleishvili, and again in September to add For Georgia, despite it being the only opposition force still represented in the disputed parliament.
Who is not targeted (yet):
The lawsuit in its current form still does not target some of the smaller opposition forces, including Girchi – More Freedom, Droa, Strategy Agmashenebeli, European Georgia, or Freedom Square, which are also members of the opposition Alliance uniting nine parties.
Despite Georgian Dream adopting amendments in October 2025 to extend the restrictions of banned opposition parties to individuals associated with them, GD has so far refrained from targeting individual members in its constitutional claim. The ruling party also said it would not target MP mandates of Gakharia’s For Georgia party in the current lawsuit.
Who will be ruling on the case:
Seven judges will be reviewing the case, amid widespread perceptions that the court is dominated by ruling party loyalists.
Georgia’s Constitutional Court, when fully composed, consists of nine judges, each serving for a 10-year term. Three of them are appointed by the President, three are elected by Parliament by a majority of at least three-fifths of its full membership, and the remaining three are appointed by the Supreme Court. Judges are appointed to serve 10-year terms.
Following the latest submission in September, the case was assigned to the Court’s full plenum instead of a single three-judge panel, with the Court citing the need to clarify the Constitution regarding a “rare and/or particularly important legal issue.”
The nine-member judicial body currently has seven active judges, who will be the ones ruling on the case, including:
- Revaz Nadaraia, Constitutional Court Chairman, selected by the Supreme Court plenum in 2025.
- Eva Gotsiridze, Judge, elected by the Georgian Dream-led parliament in 2017.
- Giorgi Tevdorashvili, Judge, appointed by President Salome Zourabichvili in 2021
- Goga Kikilashvili, Judge, appointed by GD-Elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili in 2026
- Sergo Metopishvili, Judge, selected by the Supreme Court plenum in 2026
- Giorgi Modebadze, Judge, appointed by GD-Elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili in 2025
- Vasil Roinishvili, Judge, selected by the Supreme Court plenum in 2020
The number of active judges decreased after Judge Manana Kobakhidze resigned on October 13 following the rejection of her request to recuse herself from the party-banning lawsuit. Before that, in October 2025, another judge, Irine Imerlishvili, also prematurely resigned. Imerlishvili did not cite any specific reasons, but her resignation came amid GD’s announced plans to seek banning its opponents through the Court.
Three judges have been appointed since Georgian Dream declared its plans to file the party-banning claim. One of them, Giorgi Modebadze, was also appointed by Kavelashvili last October, and two more judges – Sergo Metopishvili and Goga Kikilashvili – filled two more vacant seats in September from presidential and Supreme Court quotas. Critics responded to the appointments with concerns that the judicial body, long accused of pro-government leanings, will now be fully dominated by Georgian Dream loyalists, with “no dissenting opinions” expected anymore.
The two currently vacant seats are not expected to be filled in the near future, as both are positions filled by Parliament. The Georgian Dream-led majority currently has 89 members, one MP short of the minimum 90 votes required to elect a Constitutional Court judge.
When to expect the ruling:
According to the law, the Constitutional Court has a maximum of nine months from the submission of a lawsuit on the constitutionality of a political party to rule on the case. That period has been reset twice, as Georgian Dream withdrew and resubmitted the lawsuit, adding new parties in April and September. The ruling must therefore be delivered by June 2027 at the latest.
The Court already scheduled the first hearings on October 21, 22, and 23.
Who will (not) take part in hearings:
The representatives of several parties targeted in the lawsuit publicly commented on their plans regarding whether to take part in the hearings.
Lelo/Strong Georgia and Ahali/Coalition for Change announced they will take part in the hearings, while Federalists said they won’t be participating not to give the proceedings any “legal form.”
UNM and Gakharia/For Georgia are yet to make their plans public.
What’s the international reaction:
Georgian Dream’s move to ban its opponents through a lawsuit has drawn sharp criticism from Western countries and institutions over the past year. On October 8, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the “immediate withdrawal” of the claim, saying the proceedings amount to “eliminating legitimate political opposition.”
The move has also been widely condemned as an attack on political pluralism in other key resolutions and documents, including in the Hague Declaration and accompanying resolutions adopted by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) in July, as well as a March report prepared within the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.
Should the ruling party proceed with banning the opposition parties, it may also negatively affect Georgian Dream’s stated efforts to “reset” relations with the United States amid continued uncertainty in bilateral ties between erstwhile close partners. After its May visit in Tbilisi, the U.S. State Department delegation stressed the need for “a stable domestic political climate that facilitates opposition engagement,” among others, for a sustainable strategic partnership between the two countries.
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