Former President of Georgia Was Elected by Indirect Voting. Claim by “ZS Premium” Fact-Checked and Debunked

On December 16, 2024, Georgia held presidential elections using this new procedure, which involved an electoral college made up of 300 members — half from parliamentary deputies and half from regional representatives. The ruling party, “Georgian Dream,” holds a majority in parliament, and during this election, former football player and deputy Mikheil Kavelashvili, the only nominee, was elected almost unanimously. Opposition parties have questioned the legitimacy of these elections.

In a post dated December 18, 2024, the Belarusian pro-government Telegram channel “ZhS Premium” claimed that the system of indirect citizen voting was implemented in 2017 by “the previous pro-European government” and highlighted the opposition’s recent change in stance on their own proposals.

The post stated: “Interestingly, the opposition in Georgia is actively contending that the elections were unfair and fundamentally flawed because the president is not elected directly by the people but by deputies. However, the irony is that this electoral change was not initiated by the current parliament. It was, in fact, pushed through by the prior pro-European government in 2017. Furthermore, the Ma'am president ended up in her position precisely through this process.”

The changes to Georgia's voting system were initiated by the "Georgian Dream" party in 2017. President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoed the law at that time, but parliament later overrode his veto with a majority vote. Most opposition deputies boycotted the vote, calling the initiative a one-party document. 

In 2018, Georgia held its last direct presidential election, in which Salome Zurabishvili was elected, securing nearly 60% of the votes in the second round.