TBILISI, October 12 – Georgia’s Constitutional Court has refused a judge’s request to step aside from a case seeking to ban five opposition parties. The judge asked to be recused due to past involvement with the ruling party, raising doubts about her impartiality.
Judge Manana Kobakhidze asked to recuse herself on October 9. She said her previous political career, including serving as a founding member and chair of Georgian Dream and later as an MP, could create reasonable questions among the public and parties to the case about whether the proceedings would be seen as fair.
Kobakhidze also pointed to her past public criticism of the United National Movement and some of its members. According to her request, she had previously called on UNM members to dissolve the party and leave politics, while criticizing what she described as abuses committed during its time in power.
The Constitutional Court rejected her request, explaining that Georgia’s Constitution does not bar former politicians or MPs from becoming constitutional judges, and that general political criticism made in the past does not automatically disqualify a judge from hearing a case.
The court also warned that applying such a broad recusal standard could interfere with its work because Constitutional Court judges cannot simply be replaced by other judges if they withdraw from a case. It said Kobakhidze’s old statements did not have a sufficiently close and direct link to the specific legal questions now before the court to create convincing grounds for assuming bias.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze backed that reasoning later Monday, saying a judge’s past role as a party founder was not in itself grounds for recusal.
“If this were the case, Manana Kobakhidze should not consider any law at all,” the prime minister said, adding that she had been a judge for about a decade and no longer had ties to a political party.
Opposition politician Giorgi Sioridze of Strong Georgia-Lelo took argued that the case itself was unconstitutional and accusing Bidzina Ivanishvili of forcing institutions to take part in what he called a political campaign against the opposition.
The case was brought by 88 members of parliament and seeks to determine the constitutionality and possible prohibition of five political groups: United National Movement, Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia-Lelo, the Federalist Party and Gakharia for Georgia.
