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.
صهاينة…و….ربيبهم خنزير الاعلام العربي المدير العام المخلوع البغل ابن الحمار آسر أبو هلاسة
srael and Georgia will begin discussing a possible move of Georgia’s embassy to Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely wrote on her Twitter early Monday morning.— Mahmoud Aljazaery (@MahmoudJazairi) December 17, 2018
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, Naija News understands.
The event was held in the medieval town of Telavi in Georgia’s eastern wine making 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 and tried to hold a protest rally outside the royal residence.
But the plan was thwarted by police, who on Sunday morning blocked a kilometre-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.
My heartfelt congratulations to #salomezurabishvili on being elected Georgia’s first female president. Always encouraging to see growing roles of #WomenInPower. #UN4ALL #GenderEquality #WomenInPolitics
— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) November 29, 2018
Zurabishvili was elected as the ex-Soviet nation’s president last month. She defeated Grigol Vashadze, the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement.
She was backed in the election by the ruling Georgian Dream party of Georgia’s ex-premier and billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili.
