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Politics

Georgia’s Constitutional Court rules today on summoning Ivanishvili in the party-ban case

Georgia’s Constitutional Court resumes its hearing on the banning of five opposition parties at 14:00 today, 26 October, after three days of sittings in Batumi. The plenum will first rule on a motion by Gakharia’s party to question Bidzina Ivanishvili and other Georgian Dream leaders as witnesses, then turn to the merits. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze says the five are in reality one party.

By CAW Staff26 October 2026
An empty wooden witness box stands alone in a wide bare hall with slate blue walls, a small amber marker on its rail.

The court resumes the case on declaring five opposition parties unconstitutional at 14:00 today by decision of its chairman, Revaz Nadaraia, Interpressnews reported on Friday. Nadaraia said the plenum will also announce its decision on the motion filed by Gakharia’s For Georgia to question Ivanishvili and other current and former leaders of Georgian Dream as witnesses. After that the hearing moves to the merits and opens with the rapporteur judge’s report.

“The past three days have shown that there is a significant amount of work ahead of us. I am not certain whether we will finish by next week,” Nadaraia said on Friday. If the work is unfinished, he added, the court can take a break the following week.

Kobakhidze, commenting on the lawsuit the same day in remarks carried by Interpressnews, said the five are one party in reality, under the collective name the ruling party uses for the opposition. “This lawsuit concerns declaring a single political party unconstitutional. That party is called the ‘Collective National Movement.’ It is also what we call a foreign agency, and there is no place for a foreign agency in our political system,” he said.

“The past three days have shown that there is a significant amount of work ahead of us. I am not certain whether we will finish by next week,” Nadaraia said on Friday.

He said declaring that party unconstitutional is necessary to restore the health of Georgia’s democratic system, and he described the opposition’s motions of the first three days as an attempt to delay the proceedings. “Everyone saw that the opposition was artificially trying to delay the process,” he said.

The suit, filed by Georgian Dream deputies under Article 23 of the constitution, names the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalists and Gakharia’s For Georgia. The hearings opened in Batumi on 21 October, and over the first three days the court rejected the opposition’s motions, among them Lelo’s requests to bring in the European Court of Human Rights’ case law and Venice Commission experts, as CAW reported on 23 October.

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