Kavelashvili is a one-party appointed illegitimate president, Transparency International Georgia reports.

According to their statement, "By electing a president in disregard of the Constitution and the law, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his party are further deepening the political crisis."

"On December 14, 2024, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his party appointed their own president. Georgian Dream massively falsified the October 26, 2024, parliamentary elections, seized power, and today unilaterally 'appointed' Mikheil Kavelashvili as the 'president' of Georgia.

As we have stated before, following the rigged elections, Georgian Dream arbitrarily and unilaterally established a parliament, whose first session violated the Georgian Constitution in two major ways:

1. The session was not convened by the president, the only authority with the power to do so.
2. The parliament recognized the mandates of its members despite their election validity being contested in the Constitutional Court, which legally precluded the parliament from recognizing these mandates.

Consequently, a 'president' elected by an illegitimate parliament is himself illegitimate. Under Georgian law, society does not recognize the president elected by Georgian Dream as the lawful president of Georgia. It is evident that by electing a president in disregard of the Constitution and the law, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his party are further aggravating the political crisis.

Once again, we call on Bidzina Ivanishvili to stop deepening the political crisis in the country and act in the best interests of Georgia and its citizens by respecting the law and the Constitution. Additionally, we remind him that the only way to bring the country out of the crisis is by taking the following measures:

1. Release all unlawfully detained protesters and drop all charges against them.
2. Announce new elections, to be conducted with a newly, fairly composed election administration and with guarantees of political neutrality in law enforcement agencies (SSG, Special Investigation Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs)," the organization stated.