Mikhail Kavelashvili took the presidential oath of office at a modest ceremony at the Georgian Parliament

Mikhail Kavelashvili took the presidential oath of office on Sunday in the parliamentary session hall, in the presence of representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

At the same time, Georgia's fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili, said outside her Atoneli residence that it was a farce and that she remains the legitimate president until new elections are held in the country.

Kavelashvili's inauguration ceremony lasted just over half an hour and took place in the parliament's session hall. Previously, presidential inaugurations have only taken place in the courtyard of the legislature, in the presence of a large number of guests.

Neither foreign ambassadors nor foreign guests were invited to the ceremony.

The ceremony was attended by members of the election board - MPs, representatives of local self-government bodies, representatives of the supreme councils of Adjara Autonomous Republic and Abkhazia, members of the Government of Georgia, constitutional bodies and representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Palace of Parliament was also visited by the Honourable Chairman, the founder of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Kavelashvili took the oath on a specially printed copy of the Constitution. The Georgian Dream decided to immortalise this moment.

‘Years, tens, even hundreds of years will pass, and this will be the original on which all presidents will take the oath,’ Speaker Shalva Papuashvili announced

The session hall was unable to accommodate the military orchestra. The national anthem was performed at the ceremony by the choir of the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Martve ensemble.

Kavelashvili was not directly elected. According to the Constitution, there will no longer be direct elections of the Georgian president, and on 14 December Kavelashvili was elected president without opposition by the Electoral College. There were no other candidates: Kavelashvili won the election, in which he ran alone.

Kavelashvili is among the associates of the ‘Dream’ party, which formally spun off into the ‘Power of the People’ party and was notable for its strident anti-Western statements. He was number 18 on Dream's party list in the 26 October parliamentary elections.

The Georgian Dream has made no secret of the fact that it chose Kavelashvili on the grounds of loyalty, confident that he would not defect to the opposition, as Giorgi Margvelashvili and Salome Zurabishvili had done before.

Bidzina Ivanishvili told what is good about Mikhail Kavelashvili, who, according to the Georgian Dream founder's decision, should become the president of Georgia.

Quotes:

1. ‘Honesty, justice, patriotism and principle are the qualities that distinguish Mikhail Kavelashvili.’

2. ‘He is the best embodiment of a Georgian man by his nature, if you like, by his habitus.’

3. ‘He is a wonderful husband and father of four children.’

‘The gross practice of systematic violation of the Constitution and betrayal of the country by the president will be a thing of the past,’ Ivanishvili said.

Kavelashvili's biography

Kavelashvili's public labour biography consists of two parts: his football and parliamentary careers.

The website of the Parliament does not give an answer to the question about the education of Mikhail Kavelashvili. This column is empty.

Date of birth: 22 July 1971.

He started playing in Lokomotiv Tbilisi, then moved to Dinamo, where he became a six-time champion of Georgia. In 1995 he moved to the Vladikavkaz club Spartak-Alania, with which he also won the championship. In 1995 Kavelashvili was included in the list of the best players of the Russian Championship.

In 1996 he moved to Manchester City. After the club was relegated from the Premier League, Kavelashvili was loaned to Swiss Grasshopper, as he had not played enough games in the Premier League to be allowed to play in the first division. For the next ten years he played for various clubs in Switzerland. In the second half of 2004 he was loaned to Alania on a six-month loan.

In 2015 he planned to run for the presidency of the Football Federation of Georgia, but due to lack of higher education he could not take part in the elections.

Member of the Parliament of Georgia of the IX, X and XI convocations from the ruling Georgian Dream party. Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Sport and Youth Affairs (2016-2022). In 2022, Kavelashvili and other members of the Georgian Dream created a separate parliamentary faction, the Power of the People, which was characterised by more radical anti-Western rhetoric.

Reprinted from https://www.newsgeorgia.ge/