Former Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili leaves the Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi on 29 December 2024 after addressing the crowd gathered outside. Photo: EPA-EFE / DAVID MDZINARISHVILI
Former Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili has left Tbilisi’s Orbeliani Palace, the official residence of the country’s ceremonial head of state, to make way for her successor, Mikhail Kavelashvili, independent Russian TV channel Dozhd reported on Sunday.
Zourabichvili had indicated that she would refuse to vacate the building on Sunday and would instead attempt to remain in office, accusing the country’s government of being “illegitimate” following the contested results of October’s parliamentary elections, which saw the populist, pro-Russian Georgian Dream party take a majority of the seats in parliament amid widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing, vote buying and voter intimidation.
Addressing hundreds of anti-government protesters who had gathered outside the Orbeliani Palace on Sunday morning, Zourabichvili said that while she would in fact be leaving the residence to make way for her far-right populist successor, she would be “taking legitimacy with her”, Georgian TV channel Mtavari reported.
“Six years ago I swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution, but even more I swore an oath of allegiance to the country and to you, which is why I am here today,” Zourabichvili said, adding that, irrespective of whether she was inside or outside the Orbeliani Palace, her allegiance would remain the same and “I will come out of here to you and I will be with you.”
Meanwhile, former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, an arch conservative and vociferous critic of Europe who has served as a parliamentary deputy for the ruling Georgian Dream party since 2016, was sworn in as Georgia’s sixth president since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kavelashvili is the first president of Georgia to have been elected not by a popular vote, but by an electoral college, following a constitutional amendment that was spearheaded by Georgian Dream in 2022. The electoral college that selected Kavelashvili — who was the sole candidate put forward for the position — was composed of parliamentary deputies and elected regional officials, and was dominated by members of Georgian Dream, the party that has ruled Georgia since 2012.
