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| Georgia's new and first female President Salome Zurabishvili was sworn in on Sunday (AFP Photo/IRAKLI GEDENIDZE) |
Telavi (Georgia) (AFP) - Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls.
The
inauguration paved the way for a new constitution to come into force,
transforming the country into a parliamentary republic with a largely
ceremonial president.
The event
was held in the mediaeval town of Telavi in Georgia's eastern winemaking region
of Kakheti.
French-born
Zurabishvili, 66, took the oath of office in the courtyard of an 18th-century
manor that belonged to Georgia's penultimate king Heraclius II.
"The
goal of my presidency is to make Georgia's democratic development and its path
towards Europe irreversible," she said in an inaugural speech.
"I
will facilitate this process with the support of our strategic partner, the
United States of America, and our European friends," she said.
Opposition
parties have refused to recognise Zurabishvili's election last month and tried
to hold a protest rally outside the royal residence.
But the
plan was thwarted by police, who on Sunday morning blocked a kilometres-long
opposition motorcade on a road leading from the capital Tbilisi to Telavi.
Pro-opposition
Rustavi-2 TV channel reported that clashes briefly erupted between police
officers and protesters as they tried to break through police ranks.
"Georgian
Dream has taken away our constitution, our state institutions, our freedom of expression,"
defeated candidate Grigol Vashadze told journalists after a failed attempt to
stage a protest in Telavi.
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| Police block a street during Georgia's new President Salome Zurabishvili's inauguration ceremony in the eastern city of Telavi (AFP Photo/Vano Shlamov) |
Election
irregularities
Vashadze
was the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by exiled former
president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement.
Zurabishvili
was backed in the election by the ruling Georgian Dream party of Georgia's
ex-premier and billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Ivanishvili,
Georgia's richest man, stepped down as prime minister in 2013 after just a year
in office but is still widely believed to be Georgia's de facto ruler. His
critics accuse him of "state capture" as his loyalists hold key
cabinet posts.
Former French
diplomat Zurabishvili has said her election was a step forward for women and a
move closer to Europe.
But
opposition parties have refused to accept the result, pointing to instances of
alleged vote-buying, multiple voting, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing
in the November 28 election.
On December
2, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in Tbilisi against
the election result, demanding snap parliamentary polls.
Georgia's
leading rights groups denounced the electoral irregularities, which the US
State Department said were "not consistent with the country's commitment
to fully fair and transparent elections."
Observers
from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that while
the election was "competitive" and candidates campaigned freely, it
was concerned over "the misuse of state resources" by the ruling
party.
In what
critics derided as "vote-buying" ahead of the election, Ivanishvili
promised the government would drastically increase social spending and pledged
to spend his own money to write off the bank loans of more than 600,000 people.
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Georgia's
new President Salome Zurabishvili said she would continue to promote
the
country's pro-US, pro-EU policies (AFP Photo/IRAKLI GEDENIDZE)
|
Daughter
of refugees
Zurabishvili
was born in France to a Georgian family who fled the Bolshevik regime to Paris
in 1921.
She studied
international relations at the prestigious Paris Institute of Political
Sciences before a 30-year career as a French diplomat, with postings to the
United Nations, Washington and Chad.
Her career
in French diplomacy culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president
Saakashvili appointed her as foreign minister.
But
Zurabishvili quickly made enemies in the ranks of the parliamentary majority,
with MPs and a number of senior diplomats publicly accusing her of arrogance.
She was
sacked in 2005 after a year on the job, though thousands took to the streets of
the capital to protest her dismissal.
She then
joined the opposition as a member of parliament and became one of Saakashvili's
fiercest critics.
In her book
"A Woman for Two Countries", published in France after her firing,
she wrote: "Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has never
attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me."
Zurabishvili
will be Georgia's last directly elected president as the country transitions to
a parliamentary form of governance following a controversial constitutional
reform.
The
Caucasus country's next president will be elected in 2024 by a 300-member
electoral college.
Adopted in
September 2017, the constitutional change was protested by all opposition
parties which denounced it as favouring the ruling party.
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