Mikheil Saakashvili has been elected as the new President of Georgia. The electoral college voted for the candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party on Saturday in Tbilisi.
For the first time, the head of state was not elected by the people, but by an assembly of parliament members and local politicians. The former football player, considered ultranationalist and pro-Russian, was the only candidate.
The opposition boycotted the vote, as it does not recognize the results of the parliamentary election in late October, which are overshadowed by fraud allegations. The current pro-European incumbent, Salome Zurabishvili, had already announced that she would not recognize the result in advance.
As in the past weeks, there were also pro-European protests against the government in the country, which has had the status of an EU candidate country for a year. Violent incidents are expected for the evening in the capital, Tbilisi.