Georgia’s party-ban case now covers the whole opposition

Georgian Dream now has a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court that would outlaw every opposition list that won seats in the October 2024 election, and a court that is about to lose one of its few habitual dissenters. The two moves came within ten days of each other in September. Read together, they say less about an imminent ban than about the ruling party building an instrument it can use when it chooses, and on a timetable it controls.

What changed in September

On 14 September Irakli Kirtskhalia, the leader of the parliamentary majority, said the party would add Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia to its constitutional claim against the opposition. He accused the party of "gross and brazen non-recognition of the constitutional order", according to Civil Georgia. On 21 September the Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, said the updated claim had been signed and "will be submitted to the Constitutional Court today". The Messenger reported the grounds the next day: For Georgia’s boycott of parliament after the 2024 vote and its return to the chamber after the protests of 4 October 2025.

Two days later, on 23 September, the court’s composition shifted. President Mikheil Kavelashvili appointed Goga Kikilashvili, 37, a non-judge member of the High Council of Justice since October 2023, to replace Judge Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze, whose term ends on 2 October. The Supreme Court’s plenum chose Sergo Metopishvili, a Tbilisi appeals judge, for a second seat. Civil Georgia notes that Kverenchkhiladze was one of the few judges known for dissenting opinions in rulings seen as favourable to the ruling party, and that two others with that record, Teimuraz Tughushi and Irine Imerlishvili, have also left or are leaving. Nika Gvaramia of Ahali called the court’s "occupation" complete and linked the timing to the party-ban case.

Who the claim now covers

The case has grown in three steps. The original claim, announced by Papuashvili in late October 2025, targeted the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change (Ahali) and Strong Georgia–Lelo. In April 2026 Georgian Dream withdrew it and refiled with the Federalists added, citing an opposition declaration of 2 March. September’s refiling adds For Georgia. Sources differ on the month of the first filing: Reuters, via Georgia Today, reported the announcement on 29 October 2025, while Civil Georgia dates the filing to November. The difference matters only for arithmetic, and does not change the argument.

The electoral weight of the targets is not in doubt. According to the Central Election Commission’s final 2024 results, as reported by Anadolu, the Coalition for Change took 11.03 per cent and 19 seats, Unity–National Movement 10.17 per cent and 16 seats, Strong Georgia 8.81 per cent and 14 seats, and Gakharia for Georgia 7.78 per cent and 12 seats. Together that is 37.79 per cent of the vote and 61 of 150 seats, against Georgian Dream’s 53.93 per cent and 89 seats. In other words, the claim now covers every list other than the governing party’s that cleared the threshold.

What a ban would do

The legal basis was laid in October 2025. On 16 October parliament passed, in three readings within three days of registration, a package amending four laws, including those on the Constitutional Court and on political unions. ConstitutionNet recorded 81 votes in the final reading. Under the package the court can bar individuals "associated with" a banned party from founding or joining a party, standing for election, holding a state-political post or donating. Transparency International Georgia reads the restrictions as having no expiry date. Earlier amendments let the court ban a "successor" party whose aims or personnel substantially repeat those of a banned one, with a 14-day review for such cases against nine months for the main claim.

There is a point of genuine uncertainty here. Transparency International Georgia’s reading is that a ban automatically terminates the mandates of the party’s MPs and local councillors. Kirtskhalia, by contrast, said the claim "won’t be targeting" For Georgia’s mandates, and Georgia Today reports that the party does not intend to seek annulment of mandates for the other targets either. Both can be true at once: the party may choose not to ask for something the law might deliver anyway. Until the claim itself is published, as Papuashvili promised it would be, outsiders cannot tell which reading the ruling party intends the court to apply.

Why the clock keeps resetting

The Constitutional Court has up to nine months to decide a party-ban case. Each refiling has restarted that period. On the nine-month rule, the first claim would have fallen due around July 2026. The April refiling pushed the outer limit to about January 2027. The September refiling pushes it to about June 2027. Papuashvili has said the court could rule sooner, and nothing prevents it.

Two readings of this pattern are available. One, advanced by the Federalists’ leader Tamar Chergoleishvili in April, is weakness: that the ruling party lacked the capacity, or the case, to carry a ban through and so keeps widening it to buy time. The other is leverage. A pending ban that can be activated within weeks, backed by a lifetime exclusion of individuals and a two-week route against successor parties, disciplines the opposition without the international cost of actually dissolving it. The appointment of two new judges before the case reaches a ruling favours the second reading. A party expecting to lose would not usually wait for new judges and then ask for more.

What it means for Brussels

The European Union has already shown that it will move against officials rather than citizens. On 6 March 2026 the Commission suspended visa-free travel for holders of Georgian diplomatic, service and official passports for 12 months, the first use of the revised suspension mechanism, citing what it described as a crackdown on "protesters, opposition politicians, and independent media" since October 2024. The same decision said the Commission could extend the suspension to all Georgian citizens. A ruling that removes the entire parliamentary opposition would bear directly on that step when the 12-month period ends in March 2027 and the Commission must decide whether to extend it.

Tbilisi is placing its bet elsewhere. At the UN General Assembly on 24 September Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze spoke about sovereignty, Russian occupation, economic growth and Georgia’s place on the Middle Corridor, not about the EU accession process. The message to partners is that transit and growth should carry the relationship. For the Commission, that is a harder argument to answer than it looks, because the EU also wants that corridor to work, and Georgian territory is central to it.

What to watch

Three things will show which reading is right. First, whether the court’s new majority schedules hearings once Kikilashvili takes his seat after 2 October, or lets the case run toward the June 2027 limit. Second, whether the published claim asks for the individual exclusions the October 2025 law allows, and against whom. Third, whether any For Georgia or other opposition MPs lose their seats, whatever the party says now. Our view is that a ruling, when it comes, will be timed to Georgian Dream’s domestic needs rather than to the court’s deadline. The end of the EU’s visa suspension period next March is the first external date that could change that calculation.

Sources

• Civil Georgia — Two New Constitutional Court Judges Appointed As Critics Fear 'No More Dissenting Opinions’ (23 September 2026)
• Civil Georgia — GD to Add Gakharia’s For Georgia to Constitutional Lawsuit Seeking Opposition Party Ban (14 September 2026)
• APA — Georgian Dream updates constitutional lawsuit seeking ban on political parties (21 September 2026)
• Georgia Today — Georgian Dream seeks Constitutional Court ban on Gakharia for Georgia (15 September 2026)
• JAMnews — Georgian government adds another party to list of those facing ban (20 April 2026)
• Transparency International Georgia — The Ban on Political Parties and Their Members Will Ultimately Undermine Democracy in Georgia
• Anadolu Agency — Georgia’s electoral authority announces official results as Georgian Dream secures 89 seats in parliament (November 2024)
• EEAS via GlobalSecurity.org — Commission suspends visa-free travel for Georgian holders of diplomatic, service or official passports (6 March 2026)