Acting on plans announced in January, the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has established an investigative parliamentary commission to look into the activities of the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) government.

The ruling party accuses UNM officials, and specifically the party’s founder and leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, of “systemic crimes” – including provoking the August 2008 war with Russia – during their stint in power, which ended after GD’s victory over the UNM in Georgia’s 2012 parliamentary elections.

The resolution to adopt the Interim Fact-finding Commission on the Activities of the Regime and the Officials of the Political Regime 2003–2012, as is its official name, was approved during a plenary vote on February 5 by the 83 sitting MPs of the Georgian Dream majority parliament.

The investigative commission’s mandate will be in place for three months with scope to extend this to six months if needed.

The UNM party remains Georgia’s largest opposition party and ran in the contested October 2024 parliamentary elections as part of the Unity – National Movement coalition alongside the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party.

Following widespread allegations that GD rigged the October vote, the Unity faction, along with the three other opposition groups that won seats, condemned the elections as illegitimate, refused to recognise GD’s victory, and revoked their mandates in the newly elected parliament.

As reported by Georgian platform OC Media, the resolution’s explanatory note states the investigative commission, “within the framework of its competence, will ensure the conduct of an accurate and transparent investigation, evaluate the activities of the regime in force between 2003-2012 in order to prevent political, economic, or other threats facing the country”.

Davit Matiskashvili, the chair of the parliament Committee on Procedural Issues and Rules, announced on February 7 that the commission would have 10 participants: five GD MPs, two representatives of People’s Power, a far right GD splinter, and one from the European Socialists party, a new, “healthy opposition” group set up by three GD MPs on February 5.

“Two seats will remain vacant, and will be filled after, and if [Giorgi] Gakharia’s [For Georgia opposition] party, [who are boycotting all parliamentary sessions but retain their mandates], meets the trust of its voters and enters parliament it will naturally take these seats,” Matikashvili said, adding that refusal to cooperate within the commission would result in “corresponding criminal liability”.

As bne IntelliNews reported, GD first announced plans for the investigative commission on January 9, stating it would be set up in the first week of the parliamentary spring session, which opened on February 4, and, following investigations, would prepare a report over several months to present to parliament for approval in the first week of the September session.

During the January briefing, the head of the GD parliamentary majority, Mamuka Mdinaradze, declared the commission would examine the “widely known systemic crimes committed by the [Saakashvili] regime between 2003 and 2012”.

“The temporary investigative will summon and question of officials from the former regime, as well as any other individuals who may have been involved in crimes committed by the regime or who may possess valuable information on these crimes,” Mdinaradze stated.

According to GD, the UNM party’s alleged crimes include “systematic torture in penitentiary facilities; killing and violence; corruption and corporate pressure to seize assets and extort money; illegal confiscation of media outlets from their rightful owners; provoking the August 2008 war with Russia and accusing Georgian soldiers of war crimes”.

Following the investigation’s conclusions by parliament, Mdinaradze explained in January, the report would be passed on to the Prosecutor’s Office and “other relevant bodies, in accordance with Georgian legislation, for the purpose of taking further measures and ensuring the punishment of the perpetrators”.

As part of their pre-election campaign in the run up to the October 2024 vote, GD vowed to ban all opposition parties – which they dub the “collective National Movement” – should it achieve the necessary constitutional majority in the parliament, aiming to appeal to an electorate for whom the memories of Saakashvili’s controversial latter term were still fresh.

As OC Media reported in August 2024, GD painted the vote as a set of “referenda” between “war or peace, moral degradation or traditional values, subservience to external forces or an independent sovereign state, the collective National Movement or Georgian Dream”, drawing on its own continuing allegations that the pro-Western “radical opposition”, with the help of foreign influence and funding, is attempting to socially and politically corrupt Georgia and drag it into Russia’s war with Ukraine.

The UNM took power in Georgia in 2003 following the bloodless Rose Revolution and the ousting of the Soviet-era president, Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili’s government pursued a pro-Western policy in its early years, implementing major reforms to modernise the country, root out corruption and crime and establish a free market economy.

During Saakashvili’s second term, following the 2008 war with Russia, accusations of authoritarianism began to mount against the UNM leader, with critics citing widespread sexual abuse of prisoners in Georgia’s jails and violent crackdowns on street protesters.