The Daily Populous Saturday December 28th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by Automatic-Break1001

Salome Zourabichvili's family fled Georgia in 1921 after Soviet forces snuffed out the country's three-year experiment with independence from Russia.

A century later, Georgia's pro-Western president is refusing to leave office, arguing she is the last legitimate institution in her country,

On Sunday, her six-year term as president is due to end. According to a new system for selecting the head of state, on that day she will be replaced by former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, chosen with the support of the governing Georgian Dream party.

Zourabichvili, 72, has denounced his election under an electoral college system in which he was the only candidate as a travesty.

When she became president in 2018 she was endorsed by Georgian Dream, but she has since condemned their contested election victory in late October as a "Russian special operation" and backed nightly pro-EU protests outside parliament.

The government says if she refuses to leave office she will be committing a crime.

If she is forced out, she says the ruling party's takeover of the state will be complete and Georgia will have surrendered its sovereignty to a party that she accuses of serving Moscow.

Realistic_Lead8421 on December 28th, 2024 at 19:55 UTC »

Is there any merit to the complaints? I read the reports of the oesce election observers and it did not really seem THAT bad when compared to other weak democracies such as the US.

Annoying_Rooster on December 28th, 2024 at 19:46 UTC »

Is there a genuine possibility that Georgia could dissolve into civil war?

Curious_Donut_8497 on December 28th, 2024 at 14:23 UTC »

I am reading the original post and comments while enjoying the popcorn to be honest.