Mikheil Kavelashvili has been elected as the next president of Georgia, amid mounting anger over the government’s halt to the European Union accession process until 2028. Mikheil Kavelashvili is a former footballer and MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party. As the only candidate for the job, Kavelashvili was chosen in parliament by a direct ballot of a 300-member electoral college made up of MPs and representatives of local government. 224 out of 225 members of Georgia’s electoral college voted for him. The election process took place under constitutional changes that ended the direct election of the president and took effect this year.
Meanwhile, the four main opposition groups boycotted parliament, insisting that the elections held in October this year were rigged. Mikheil Kavelashvili will be sworn in on the 29th of this month. The outgoing president, Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-Western figure who has joined the opposition protesters, said the presidential vote makes a mockery of democracy.