Georgian court sends ruling party's bid to outlaw five opposition parties to full plenum

Georgia's Constitutional Court moved the case that would remove the country's parliamentary opposition from the law books a step closer to judgment. The court's own register of judicial acts records a ruling of 6 October 2026, numbered N1/1-1/1979, on a constitutional complaint lodged by 88 members of parliament against five political associations: United National Movement, Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalist Party and Gakharia For Georgia. The recorded outcome is that the case was referred to the plenum for consideration. A second ruling of the same date, N1/13/1958, terminated the earlier complaint on the prohibition of a political party. Until now the ruling party's bid had sat with a chamber. It is now before the full court, the only body that can dissolve a party at all.

What the referral changes

The distinction matters because of where the power sits. Article 23(4) of the constitution of Georgia, as published by the Legislative Herald of Georgia, provides that the prohibition of a political party is admissible only by decision of the Constitutional Court, in cases defined by organic law and in accordance with the established procedure. Article 23(3) sets the grounds: a party may not be established or operate if it aims to overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional order, to infringe the independence or violate the territorial integrity of Georgia, or if it propagates war or violence or incites national, ethnic, provincial, religious or social strife. Nothing in that text turns on a party losing an election or opposing a government.

Article 60 of the same text fixes the forum. The Constitutional Court has nine judges serving ten-year terms, three appointed by the President, three elected by Parliament by a three-fifths majority and three appointed by the plenum of the Supreme Court. Standing to bring a claim of this kind belongs, among others, to at least one-fifth of the members of parliament. With 150 seats, one-fifth is thirty. The complaint carries 88 signatures, which is the ruling bloc rather than a fringe of it. At the time of writing, the court's own page of current justices lists six names, headed by the court's president, Revaz Nadaraia, with Vasil Roinishvili and Manana Kobakhidze as vice-presidents and chairs of the first and second boards.

How the claim reached this point

The attempt is a year old and has been rebuilt twice. Interfax reported on 28 October 2025 that the parliamentary majority, Georgian Dream together with two parliamentary groups, had filed a petition asking the court to declare three parties unconstitutional: United National Movement, Coalition for Change and Strong Georgia-Lelo. RFE/RL reported the same announcement by the Georgian Dream politician Shalva Papuashvili, who said the three parties continuously deny the domestic and foreign-political legitimacy of the current government and pose a real threat to the constitutional order. Irakli Kupradze of Strong Georgia called the suit a decisive blow to democracy. Bloomberg reported on 16 September 2026 that the ruling party had moved to ban all of the parliamentary opposition, the step that brought the Federalists and the party of the former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia into the same case.

The electoral arithmetic the case would settle is not close. RFE/RL reported that with more than 99 per cent of districts counted in the parliamentary election of 26 October 2024, Georgian Dream took just over 54 per cent and the four opposition groups that crossed the five per cent threshold, Coalition for Change, Unity-To Save Georgia, Strong Georgia and For Georgia, took just over 37 per cent between them. Those four, plus the Federalists, are the respondents. Interfax reported in October 2025 that if the petition succeeds, the banned parties and their affiliated members would face bars on contesting elections, holding state office and founding new parties.

The European track, on the same day

Brussels moved in the opposite direction on 6 October 2026. The European Commission adopted a package on pre-enlargement policy reviews, presented under the heading of preparing for a wider Union, which sets out governance adaptations, policy reviews and budgetary arrangements for future accessions. The Commission said indicative roadmaps would be presented for Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine. Georgia is not among them. The Commission's enlargement reports are due at the end of October.

The EU has already used the one lever it holds that does not require unanimity. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/496 of 6 March 2026, adopted under Article 8e(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, temporarily suspended the visa exemption for holders of Georgian diplomatic, service and official passports for twelve months, requiring them to obtain visas for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. The regulation grounds the suspension in the deterioration of human rights protection in Georgia, including restrictions on freedom of association, expression and assembly. Holders of ordinary Georgian passports are untouched, and those who had entered before 6 March 2026 may stay and leave without a visa.

That sequencing is the point. A dissolution handed down by the Constitutional Court is a domestic judicial act under an article of the constitution that predates the present dispute, which is harder for external partners to answer than a law passed by parliament. The visa measure shows the reverse: the EU's reinforced suspension mechanism bites on officials' travel documents, not on the legal order that produced them. If the plenum rules for the claimants, the parties that won just over 37 per cent in 2024 disappear as legal persons, and their members are barred from standing, from state office and from forming replacements, before the next scheduled parliamentary vote.

Sources

• Constitutional Court of Georgia — Judicial acts register, rulings N1/1-1/1979 and N1/13/1958 of 6 October 2026
• Constitutional Court of Georgia — Current Justices
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Constitution of Georgia, Articles 23 and 60
• RFE/RL — Georgian Dream Demands Ban On Three Largest Opposition Parties
• RFE/RL — Georgian Dream Hails Victory, While Opposition Decries 'Stolen Election'
• Interfax — Claim filed with Georgia's Constitutional Court to ban radical political parties
• Bloomberg — Georgia's Ruling Party Moves to Ban All Parliamentary Opposition
• European Commission — Preparing for a wider Union, 6 October 2026
• EUR-Lex — Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/496 of 6 March 2026