Mikhail Kavelashvili, a candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has been elected as the sixth president of Georgia, CEC Chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili said, Mtavari TV channel reported.
“Mikhail Kavelashvili has been elected President of Georgia,” Giorgi Kalandarishvili said.
The politician received 224 votes out of 300. He needed 200 votes to be elected president.
For the first time in the history of Georgia, the president was elected not by direct popular vote, but by a panel of 300 electors. It consisted of 150 members of the Georgian Parliament, 21 members of the Supreme Council of Adjara, 20 representatives of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia and 109 members of district sakrebulos – municipal authorities of different regions of the country. The opposition did not participate in the session in the parliament building, where the head of state was elected.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who did not recognise the results of the parliamentary elections, said earlier that she would not step down. She added that “there can be no legitimate presidential elections under an illegitimate parliament.” Zurabishvili also declared herself the only legitimate representative of power in the country.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Western ideas of a new world order hypocrisy. According to him, they are aimed solely at preserving the neo-colonial system, showing their essence in the form of “hypocrisy, double standards and claims”.
