Ruling party official claims foreign-funded groups prevent genuine opposition

Levan Machavariani, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party and Deputy Chair of the parliamentary faction of the ruling party, on Friday responded to a statement made by Mamuka Mdinaradze, the party’s Executive Secretary, who announced that the ruling party intended to seek the unconstitutional designation of the United National Movement and its allied parties.

Mdinaradze on Thursday said the findings of the Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission examining alleged crimes committed by the former United National Movement Government between 2003 and 2012 would provide a solid legal basis to appeal to the Constitutional Court for declaring the opposition United National Movement party and its satellite parties “unconstitutional”.

“We are obligated to, so to speak, cleanse the political landscape of such harmful parties that do nothing but bad for our country”, Machavariani said.

“Of course, when the political field is freed from such parties that entirely serve external forces and are financed with hundreds of millions of dollars for this reason, real opposition will emerge there. We will give an opportunity to those who will be real patriots of our country to present real opposition in the political field”, the official noted.

In his remarks, Mdinaradze reaffirmed that this initiative was part of the ruling party’s pre-election commitments.

“It is already clear that the findings of the Investigative Commission will give us a solid basis to appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the declaration of the United National Movement and its satellite parties as unconstitutional”, the ruling party official said.

Furthermore, Mdinaradze revealed that a legislative proposal had already been initiated to extend this measure to successor parties of the UNM.