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.

A joint statement issued by opposition parties states: “The illegitimate parliament does not have the authority to elect a president, so Salome Zourabichvili remains the President of Georgia, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Georgian Defense Forces, and the country’s highest representative in foreign relations.” 

Zourabichvili is vowing not to go, asserting “the president is today the only independent and legitimate institution left in the country.” She echoed the view that illegitimately installed MPs lacked the standing to select her replacement.

Zourabichvili’s determination to keep occupying her presidential office is sure to spark immediate conflict with the government once a new president is named. On November 29, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze declared the government is ready to compel Zourabichvili “to move out of her residence and hand it over” to the new president. 

Georgian Dream is already moving to strip Zourabichvili of her security detail once her term is officially over. In addition, opposition leader Mamuka Khazaradze, after meeting with the president on December 12, revealed that the government has cut off heating in the presidential residence. Zourabichvili outwardly remains undaunted, saying she is “protected by the people on the street.” 

Under the Georgian political system, the post is largely ceremonial, but Zourabichvili has used her bully pulpit to galvanize opposition to Georgian Dream’s efforts to tighten its grip on power and steer the country away from its constitutionally mandated goal of joining the European Union.

Zourabichvili was directly elected as president in 2018, running as an independent candidate, although with the backing of Georgian Dream and its billionaire impresario Bidzina Ivanishvili. Over time, however, her relationship with Georgian Dream soured, especially after the government took a series of steps to distance Georgia from Western political and economic institutions.

Georgian Dream’s candidate for president is Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer player known for his outspoken anti-Western attitudes. Kavelashvili was previously a Georgian Dream MP, but he and others broke away to form a new party, claiming they wanted to expose the true influence of the West in Georgia, something they felt couldn’t be done under the ruling party’s banner. Kavelashvili was also a key backer of the controversial Russian-style “foreign agent” law, which was eventually adopted by parliament amid fierce protests. Most recently, he was found on Georgian Dream’s election list for the October’s general elections.

The electoral college that will select the next president comprises 300 electors, including 150 members of parliament, 21 from the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, 20 from the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and 109 representatives from municipal governing bodies. Georgian Dream controls at least 211 votes in the college, enough to secure the party leadership’s desired outcome. Opposition-affiliated electors are boycotting the process.