Georgian Dream's Lawsuit Seeking Ban on Opposition Parties to Be Filed by Four People at Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court lawsuit by Georgian Dream seeking a ban on opposition parties will be filed by Archil Gorduladze, Giorgi Kakhiani, Tengiz Sharmanashvili and Tornike Cheishvili. Shalva Papuashvili announced this.

The lawsuit by Georgian Dream seeks a ban on almost all major opposition parties. Among them are "Unity – National Movement", "Coalition for Change Gvaramia Melia Girchi Time Is Now", "Strong Georgia – LELO for People, for Freedom!", "Federalist Party" and "Gakharia for Georgia".

Court hearings at the Constitutional Court are scheduled for October 21, 22 and 23.

Tengiz Sharmanashvili is a Georgian Dream deputy and a member of three convocations of parliament. In 1995-1999 he was a deputy from the National Democratic Party list. At various times he worked in the judicial system, including serving as a judge of the Tbilisi District Court in 2004-2005. He worked as a specialist at the Central Election Commission in 2005-2006, and in 2016 he was a non-staff employee of the Legal Department's Division for Relations with Courts and Electoral Disputes. In 2006-2009 he was an expert on a UNDP project.

In 2009-2010 Sharmanashvili was secretary of the State Constitutional Commission. This commission drafted a constitutional amendment project that would weaken the president's role and strengthen parliament, the government and the prime minister. The then opposition suspected that Mikheil Saakashvili, after losing the right to be president, would take up the post of a strengthened prime minister. To prevent this, the opposition demanded that the constitution state that a sitting president would have no right to hold the post of prime minister for 5 years. The commission did not accept this, arguing that the issue concerned individuals and went beyond the scope of constitutional regulation.

In 2011, on Saakashvili's nomination, the parliament dominated by the National Movement approved Sharmanashvili as extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Georgia to Armenia.