Georgians went onto the streets for the third consecutive day on Wednesday to protest against the disputed results of last month’s parliamentary elections. 

The October 26^th race saw the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party claim victory amid allegations of widespread fraud and electoral violations by Georgia’s pro-Western opposition, the president, and local and international election observers.

At a thousands-strong rally outside the parliament building earlier this week, opposition leaders called for daily street protests and a campaign of “resistance”, urging Georgians to come out every day to contest GD’s victory, which all four of the major opposition coalitions have stated repeatedly they do not recognise.

On Wednesday, the opposition gathered their supporters outside the Court of Appeals in Tbilisi around 11am. The crowd, comprising a few hundred citizens, local press and opposition leaders, remained there for much of the afternoon, awaiting a decision from the appellate court on a review of recent landmark rulings by lower courts in the Georgian towns of Tetritskaro and Gori, which have provided the latest layer of complexity in the elections aftermath. 

Protesters initially gathered on Tuesday to await the verdict on this newest development in the elections dispute, however, according to opposition leaders, the trial was delayed to 12pm the following day in response to the large crowd which had gathered outside the Court of Appeals.

The Tetritskaro and Gori District Courts made the unprecedented decision this week to grant requests by local elections observers – the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) – to annul the voting results at several dozen polling stations where electoral violations, namely breeches in voter secrecy, were reported.

On Tuesday, following a courtroom examination of the transparent ballot papers used on October 26^th, precured thanks to a motion by the GYLA, Judge Vladimer Khucha of the Tetritskaro District Court ruled that “voters did not have a guarantee of security and secrecy”, and consequently nullified the results of 30 precincts, setting a significant precedent.

The day before in the central city of Gori, District Court Judge Nino Gergauli granted the request of ISEFD and ordered that precinct election commissions should recount invalid ballots from 15 polling stations in the municipality.

The Georgia Central Election Commission (CEC) challenged these two district courts’ decisions, declaring them unfounded, which in turn prompted the opposition to challenge the CEC’s ruling at the Court of Appeals.

Opposition leaders present at the November 6 demonstration did not seem overly optimistic that the court would rule in favour of the District Court judges’ allegations, particularly in light of the power the ruling party wields over both the common courts and the Constitutional Court in Georgia.

Writing on X on November 6^th in response to the situation, Georgian journalist Anna Gvarishvili laid into the alleged corruption of the Georgian judiciary, describing it as “captured by the GD regime” and controlled by “a group of influential judges known as the ‘judiciary clan’”. 

Gvarishvili, quoting constitutional lawyer Dachi Zedelashvili, explained that this clan use a strategy of dodging responsibility when it comes to lawsuits regarding elections, which are routinely terminated early on, keeping the upper courts’ hands clean. However, the recent ruling by District Court judges Khucha and Gergauli has thrown this system off balance, forcing the judiciary to deal with the claims at the Court of Appeals level, and risk taking direct responsibility for the outcome, Gvarishvili said. 

Opposition leaders today were not expecting miracles, however. “The most controlled judges are on this case, there’s no chance”, Coalition for Change leader, Nika Melia, told bne IntelliNews, as he stood among protesters outside the appellate court gates.

“We know very well that the court is controlled by the governing party (GD) through an informal mafiosi-style governance system” added Strong Georgia leader, Ana Dolidze, speaking to bne IntelliNews.

“They’re going to decline it”, predicted 22-year-old Nini, who wore a Georgian flag on her shoulders and an EU flag tucked into her hair. Nevertheless, the mood remained upbeat, and energy built throughout the afternoon. A bass drum, whistles and horns kept up a defiant racket, and protesters covered the Appeals Court gates with dozens of stickers with slogans like ‘Get your freedom back!’, ‘It was rigged!’ and ‘Do not tolerate it!’, not at all perturbed by the rows of sullen policemen on the other side of the gates.

At around 15:30 on November 6 news broke on local media that the Court of Appeals had chosen to annul the decision of the Gori District Court to recount invalid votes and had not satisfied any of the three lawsuits filed by local election watchdog, ISFED. 

The alert “The trial continues, join us at the court, we are not breaking up yet” was posted last night to the recently formed Telegram group ‘Demand New Elections’, which now has over 2,000 members, and which the opposition are using to share details of daily protests.

Speaking to bne IntelliNews, Melia doubled down on the importance of “permanent protest”, reiterating remarks he made at the Monday and Tuesdays protests that Georgians must continue their fight. 

“These [protests] may be different from each other, in scale, in temperament, but sooner or later I personally feel that the bulk of the population will be on the streets, that’s how protest movements work, they have to keep growing, we have to stay on the treadmill. It’s tiring but we have no other way but to protest on the street”, Melia said. 

Melia’s sentiments were echoed by the Strong Georgia leader, Mamuka Khazaradze.

“Nothing is stronger than the power of the people”, he said, addressing the crowd through a microphone, “there is no time to be lazy”.