Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has called on the ruling Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party to set a date for new parliamentary elections by December 29 amid unrest over the last vote and the party's unilateral decision to postpone negotiations with the European Union.
Zurabishvili has been locked in a standoff with the party since it won October parliamentary elections plagued by allegations of electoral fraud. The opposition has refused to recognize the vote, accusing Georgian Dream of rigging the vote to cling to power.
In a speech late on December 22, she invited Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and the founder of Georgian Dream, to the presidential palace for talks on setting an election date.
Georgian Dream has denied any election wrongdoing and has refused to consider new elections despite almost daily protests over its victory and its subsequent decision to halt talks with the 27-member bloc until 2028.
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"Ivanishvili should come to the palace, and I am ready to sit down and think about how the elections should be scheduled. The date of the elections should be agreed upon by the 29th," Zurabishvili told a rally on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue, the site of countless Georgian protests.
Due to technical issues during the speech, Zurabishvili said she would release a new video recorded message of the address on December 23.
Georgia received EU candidate status in December last year but ties with Brussels have been tense in recent months following the adoption in May of a controversial "foreign agent" law pushed through parliament by Georgian Dream, which has ruled since 2012.
Critics say the legislation threatens media outlets and civil society groups and mirrors a similar Russian law used by the Kremlin to stifle political opponents and civil society.
While initially endorsed by Georgian Dream for her successful presidential run in 2018, Zurabishvili has been a thorn in the ruling party's side. Although officially a nonpartisan president limited to a ceremonial role, Zurabishvili has criticized Georgian Dream for its increasingly authoritarian stance.
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Earlier this month, an electoral college dominated by Georgian Dream chose Mikheil Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former soccer player and right-wing populist, as Georgia's next president.
His inauguration is supposed to take place on December 29, though the 72-year-old Zurabishvili, whose term ends this year, has said she isn't going anywhere.
After the ruling Georgian Dream party declared victory in an election on October 26, protests restarted and intensified after the government said it was suspending talks with Brussels on Tbilisi's bid to join the EU, Georgia’s biggest donor, biggest economic market, and home to the South Caucasus country's biggest diaspora.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in its final report on the elections -- which it issued on December 20 -- that numerous issues "negatively impacted" the elections and eroded public trust.
The report refers to the passage of the "foreign agent" law, modeled on a similar Russian law, saying the election took place amid “serious concerns about the impact of recently adopted legislation on fundamental freedoms and civil society.”
The law, which mandates that organizations receiving significant foreign funding register as foreign agents, took effect on August 1, sparking significant backlash from international and domestic actors.
The government last week pledged to amend the law, though it did not give details of the changes it would enact.