Presidential elections begin in Georgia

Georgia is supposed to select a new president on December 14. But the incumbent, Salome Zourabichvili, the engine driving opposition protests challenging the legitimacy of the Georgian Dream government, is saying she will not relinquish her office, setting up a potentially destabilizing dual-power scenario.

The new president is due to be elected by an indirect vote of a newly formed electoral college, which is dominated by Georgian Dream representatives. Given the large scale of irregularities documented in the October parliamentary election, the official results of which handed the incumbents a sizable majority in the legislature, opposition forces say the presidential electoral process is illegitimate. Accordingly, they won’t recognize the new president.