Election of new president in Georgia will raise legitimacy questions – Lithuanian advisor

VILNIUS - The election of Georgia's new president by the parliament will raise legitimacy questions, Lithuanian presidential advisor Asta Skaisgiryte says.

Her comment came after Georgia's incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili vowed not to leave her office until a new general election is held.

"Of course, we cannot say that Georgia's existing parliament is completely legitimate. If they try to continue on that path, to elect a president, then the legitimacy of the president will also be questioned," she told Lithuania's public radio LRT on Monday.

Georgia has been rocked by unrest since late October when the ruling Georgian Dream party won the parliament election. The country's pro-European opposition calls the election rigged and is boycotting the new parliament.

Pro-Western Zourabichvili is seeking to annul the election results through the country's Constitutional Court.

"Of course, the ruling party might simply ignore the Constitutional Court's ruling. But let's wait for that Constitutional Court ruling. I would like to believe that there is still enough rule of law in Georgia for the Constitutional Court to issue an impartial ruling," Skaisgiryte said.

Under the constitutional amendments adopted in 2017 by the Georgian Dream party, the president will for the first time be elected by a 300-member electoral college, rather than by universal suffrage. This new process makes it obvious that the next president will be the Georgian Dream's candidate.

"Then that president will be the one the ruling bloc needs. So we could have a situation where the crisis will only get worse, and then Georgia's European path will be stopped, so to speak," Skaisgiryte pointed out.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's announcement last Thursday that Georgia would not seek to start EU accession talks before the end of 2028 provoked a wave of protests in the capital Tbilisi and other cities.

Skaisgiryte says the protests show that the Georgians want the European path.

"The (Lithuanian – BNS) president is going to discuss these issues with the leaders of the Baltic countries and possibly the Polish president, when they meet later this week, and of course together they can decide how our region can help Georgia and its president", she said, adding that, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda had a phone conversation with the Georgian leader asked what he could do to help.