Georgian Electoral Assembly in the context of Elections in Georgia (country)

Georgia is currently undergoing a political crisis due to the disputed legitimacy of the October 2024 Georgian parliamentary election, which was conducted with significant irregularities and described by observers as "fundamentally flawed". The crisis continued with the unconstitutional self-convening of Parliament and escalated with the decision of the ruling party to suspend preparations for EU accession negotiations, which was seen as contradicting Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution. The crisis entered another phase with the election of a new president by the Georgian Electoral Assembly and its 29 December 2024 inauguration of Mikheil Kavelashvili. Salome Zourabichvili stated on 29 December and during the following weeks that she remained the president of Georgia.

Protests against the ruling party have continued since the election, with hundreds of protesters arrested, beaten or tortured by the police and the ruling-party affiliated violent groups, who also attacked journalists.

Presidential elections were held in Georgia on 14 December 2024. Following amendments to the constitution and Georgia's transition to the parliamentary republic in 2017, which led to the drastic reduction to the presidential powers, this was the first indirect vote where the president was elected by a 300-member Electoral Assembly composed of the parliamentary, local and regional representatives. Ruling party nominated candidate Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected by 224 electoral votes.

Due to opposition boycott, the 2024 presidential election was the first in the history of Georgia to have only one candidate from only one party on the ballot, a drastic reduction from 65 candidates at the previous presidential election in 2018. The election was widely disputed and regarded as illegitimate by the opposition, largely due to allegations of electoral fraud associated with the concurrent parliamentary elections. These allegations triggered widespread unrest and contributed to a broader political crisis in the country. Salome Zourabichvili, along with opposition parties and some of the international community, such as the European Parliament, refused to recognize the election of Kavelashvili as legitimate President of Georgia.

Mikheil Kavelashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ ყაველაშვილი [miχeil qʼaveɫaʃʷili]; born 22 July 1971) is a Georgian politician and former professional footballer who was sworn in as the sixth president of Georgia on 29 December 2024. His election, the first through an electoral college after constitutional changes in 2017, is being disputed by the Georgian opposition, as well as by significant parts of the Western community. He was the sole candidate for the presidency for the first time in Georgia's history because of the opposition boycott.

As a football player, he was a striker who played in the English Premier League for Manchester City and in the Swiss Super League for a range of clubs. He also played for Dinamo Tbilisi and Spartak Vladikavkaz. He was capped 46 times by the Georgian national football team.

Salomé Nino Zourabichvili (born 18 March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician and former diplomat who served as the fifth president of Georgia, becoming the first woman to be elected as president in the country's history. As a result of the constitutional amendments that came into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili became the last popularly elected president; under the new constitutional rules, Georgian presidents are to be elected indirectly by the Georgian Electoral Assembly.

Zourabichvili was born in Paris, France, into a family of Georgian political refugees. She joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and over three decades went on to occupy a variety of increasingly senior diplomatic positions. From 2003 to 2004, she served as the Ambassador of France to Georgia. In 2004, by mutual agreement between the presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia. During her tenure at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), she negotiated a treaty that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from the undisputed parts of the Georgian mainland.