Mikheil Kavelashvili, the candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream Party who was elected as the country’s 6th president with 224 votes in the parliamentary vote held in Georgia on December 14, took the oath of office in parliament this morning. The approximately 40-minute ceremony was not attended by opposition parties.
Thousands of protesters who bid farewell to former President Salome Zurabishvili at the Orbeliani Presidential Palace in the morning gathered in front of the parliament building during the ceremony and protested Kavelashvili with red cards, referring to Kavelashvili football career, and demanded the release of the protesters who were detained in the protests that have been ongoing since November 28 and that the country hold new general elections.
Mikhail Kavelashvili was the only presidential candidate because the opposition parties, who do not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections and argue that the presidential election was illegitimate, did not nominate their candidates.