Former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili has been elected as President of Georgia.
Kavelashvili was the only candidate in an election that was boycotted by the opposition and secured victory in the elections held by the a 300-seat electoral college, which replaced direct presidential elections in 2017 and is currently dominated by his party, Georgian Dream.
It was an easy victory for the 53-year-old in an exercise that was boycotted by the opposition who maintain that the government is illegitimate, so they’re not taking part in any processes that would legitimise it.
Currently aged 53, Kavelashvili retired from professional football in 2006, having plied his trade with several European clubs including Manchester City.
Career in football
His talent in football was nurtured at Dinamo Tblisi's youth system from where he emerged as a promising footballer and moved to Russian side Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995.
From there he joined English side Manchester City for two seasons, joining their striking force before moving to different Swiss Super League teams where he plied his trade until retirement in 2006.
He also carried Georgia’s national flag, making 46 appearances for the national team and scoring nine goals.
Transition to politics & controversial law
His career in football made him a popular figure in Georgia and he easily elected to Georgia's parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket.
He founded a political movement dubbed the People’s Power which became known for its strong anti-western rhetoric and formed an alliance with the Georgian Dream party.
In parliament, Kavelashvili teamed up with others to author a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,”.
The law was a setback to organizations critical of the government which could not secure funding locally.
Transition to politics
Kavelashvili has often been trolled over his academic qualifications with critics citing that he lacked higher education.
Protesters challenging his nomination and election as president outside parliament not only brought their own university diplomas but also kicked around footballs claiming that football is the only area that he is qualified in.
Political crisis
Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili who was elected president in 2018 and whose term ends on December 29 maintains that the current legislature is a illegitimate and has vowed not to hand over power.
She asserted that the country needs a “legitimate president” voted by the people, rather than “a parliament that has not received legitimacy”.
The sense in the population is that we are at a real turning point. Either this struggle succeeds … to resist this or we will enter into a regime that will be more or less the Russian regime of [Vladimir] Putin.
Georgia had its parliamentary elections on October 26 which saw Georgia Dream secure majority seats in an election in which observers reported instances of bribery and double voting.
The outgoing president and main pro-Western parties are demanding for a rerun of the polls, maintaining that the October 26 election was rigged with the help of Moscow and have boycotted the post-election parliamentary sessions.