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Inauguration of new president to take place in Georgia

Invitations have been sent to the 300 members of the country’s electoral college

TBILISI, December 29. /TASS/. The inauguration of Georgia’s sixth president Mikhail Kavelashvili will take place in the country’s parliament on Sunday.

The ceremony will begin at 11:00 a.m. local time (7:00 a.m. GMT). Invitations have been sent to the 300 members of the country’s electoral college.

Meanwhile, incumbent President Salome Zourabichvil, who refuses to recognize the outcome of the October 26 parliamentary election, insists that Kavelashvili’s election was illegitimate.

According to the Georgian Constitution, Kavelashviil will assume presidential powers by taking the oath of office. After that, Zourabichvil will be supposed to step down. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has repeatedly warned Zourabichvil that if she refuses to leave the Presidential Palace after Kavelashvili’s inauguration, she will be investigated for unlawful seizure of a government institution.

Georgia held its presidential election on December 14. The country’s new president was for the first time elected by a college of 300 electors and not through a popular vote. The electoral college includes parliament members, representatives of the Supreme Councils of Adjara and Abkhazia, and deputies from local authorities. Mikhail Kavelashvili, nominated by the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party, was the only candidate and received 224 of the 300 votes.

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