Former footballer Kavelashvili elected Georgia's president

Former Georgian national footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili has been elected the country's sixth president.

The Central Election Commission, formed by members of the 300-member parliamentary Election Council, voted on the new president on Saturday.

Nominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, Kavelashvili received 224 of 300 votes to become president.

Sixty-one opposition members refused to participate in the vote due to their rejection of the results of the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections.

Voting process

Georgia, which gained independence in 1991, introduced constitutional changes in 2017 that made the president the first to be elected by a 300-member council.

Out of 225 participating members, 224 voted for Kavelashvili, with one vote being invalid.

A minimum of 151 votes was required for the election to proceed.

Kavelashvili, 53, is a co-founder of the People's Power party, which was founded in 2022 after he, along with two other lawmakers, left Georgian Dream.

Football career

The People's Power party currently holds six seats in the 150-seat parliament.

The four major opposition groups have rejected Kavelashvili's presidency and boycotted parliament, claiming the October elections were rigged.

Protesters gathered outside parliament in large numbers since morning, braving freezing temperatures ahead of the vote.

The former footballer won more than 40 caps for the national team between 1991 and 2002, playing as a striker for clubs such as Dinamo Tbilisi, Manchester City and Basel.

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