The Constitutional Court of Georgia rejected the request from Judge Manana Kobakhidze, who sought to recuse herself from Georgian Dream’s lawsuit seeking to ban several opposition parties, with the judge citing concerns that her previous political activities and statements could raise doubts about her impartiality.
Georgian Dream initially filed the lawsuit in November 2025, seeking to outlaw the United National Movement (UNM), Lelo/Strong Georgia and Ahali/Coalition for Change. The lawsuit was later expanded in April 2026 to include the Federalists, and again in September to add For Georgia, the only opposition party still represented in Parliament, leading the GD to resubmit the claim each time and thus reset the court’s maximum 9-month deadline to rule on the case.
Following the latest submission in September, the case was assigned to the Court’s nine-judge plenum instead of a single three-judge college, with the Court citing the need to clarify the Constitution regarding a “rare and/or particularly important legal issue.”
Kobakhidze, a former Georgian Dream lawmaker, submitted the motion to recuse herself from proceedings, arguing that her participation could raise “reasonable doubts” over impartiality. She cited, among others, her role as a founding member and former chairperson of the ruling Georgian Dream party, as well as her serving as a GD MP during two parliament convocations in 2012-2017, before her elections as a constitutional court judge.
She also pointed to her past statements, first as a human rights advocate and later as a Georgian Dream MP, about the UNM and its members, some of whom are currently members of other opposition parties GD is seeking to ban.
In her motion, Kobakhidze cited, among others, having “publicly, actively criticized” them for what she described as “systemic crimes and fundamental violations of human rights connected to the period of their rule,” and having asked them “to take responsibility for the very actions” that are cited as the main arguments in the current constitutional claim.
That included, according to the motion, her “directly calling” on UNM members “to dissolve the party and exit the political field altogether” during one of the plenary sessions in the parliament.
The Constitutional Court, however, rejected Judge Kobakhidze’s motion, noting that accepting statements made before her appointment as a judge as a precondition for recusal “will paralyze the Constitutional Court’s work, negatively affecting both the impartiality and objectivity of the institution.” Two out of the eight judges on the plenum dissented, including Kobakhidze herself as well as Judge Eva Gotsiridze.
The motion came shortly after two new judges had been appointed to fill the vacant seats in the 9-member court, with critics fearing that the appointments would leave the judicial body, long accused of pro-government leanings, now almost fully dominated by Georgian Dream loyalists.
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