Georgia’s attempt to ban three main opposition forces risks pushing the country toward a “one-party dictatorship,” the Council of Europe said Wednesday.
The warning comes the day after Georgia’s ruling party asked its Constitutional Court to ban the opposition groups, a move critics condemned as a final step towards authoritarian rule in the Black Sea nation.
The Council of Europe’s two rapporteurs on Georgia urged the country on Wednesday to withdraw its request.
“Banning the democratic opposition would effectively establish a one-party dictatorship and be incompatible with Council of Europe membership,” Edite Estrela and Sabina Cudic said in a statement.
Georgia is one of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, the continent’s watchdog for democracy and human rights.
The country has been mired in political crisis since last year’s parliamentary elections, which the opposition says were rigged. It has refused to recognize the new parliament and government.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, of the governing Georgian Dream party, said it has asked the constitutional court to outlaw the United National Movement of jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, the Ahali-Coalition for Change, and Strong Georgia-Lelo.
He accused them of “repeatedly undermining the legitimacy of the government and acting against the state’s constitutional order.”
The constitutional court, widely seen as controlled by the ruling party, has nine months to decide on the request.
Former president Salome Zurabishvili called the move “the ultimate step in Georgia’s reign of terror,” saying it aimed to turn the country into a “Russian-style authoritarian regime.”
In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia’s EU bid.
The party rejects this, saying it is safeguarding stability while a Western “deep state” seeks to drag Georgia into the Ukraine war with the help of opposition parties.
