Georgia's imprisoned former president has announced plans to rebuild the opposition party he chairs as honorary president and under whose banner he ruled the country for nearly a decade.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for a range of crimes including abuse of power, embezzlement of public funds and illegally entering the country, said he wanted to create a "modern, youthful, popular movement".
"A party congress will be called at the end of July to elect temporary leadership. I am proposing a Reformers' Council to effectively rebuild the party from scratch and radically transform the United National Movement, getting it back into fighting shape," he said in a post on social media.
The United National Movement (UNM) won around 10 per cent of the vote in the country's 2024 parliamentary elections and was supplanted as the main opposition force by a coalition of several newer pro-European parties.
In his statement on Wednesday, Saakashvili said he wanted to create a political movement that could "withstand the threat of the party's possible formal dissolution", adding that every internal structure would be elected and subject to recall by a universal vote.
Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the UNM, as well as two other major pro-Western parties, in late 2025.
Shalva Papuashvili, a senior member of the anti-Western Georgian Dream party, has previously described the UNM as "a real threat to the constitutional order".
A former UNM chair, Levan Khabeishvili, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in May after calling on Georgians to take to the streets in a "peaceful revolution" ahead of the 2025 local elections.
Saakashvili, 58, served as Georgia's president for two consecutive terms between 2004 and 2013. During his time in office, he strengthened ties with the West, made joining NATO and the European Union central policy goals, fought corruption and privatised many state-owned industries.
However, his United National Movement lost the 2012 parliamentary elections to Georgian Dream amid growing concerns over his government's increasingly authoritarian rule and abuses of power.
After leaving office, Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, where he became governor of Odesa Oblast. In 2018, he was sentenced to six years in prison for ordering the beating of an opposition lawmaker, who suffered severe brain injuries.
He was taken into police custody after returning to Georgia in 2021 and has remained in prison ever since. Saakashvili is currently due to be released in April 2034 after Georgian courts imposed additional prison sentences on him in March 2025.
New strikes were reported by Iranian media overnight, including attacks near Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant around the port city of Bus...
Andy Burnham is on the brink of becoming Labour leader and prime minister after securing the overwhelming backing of Labour MPs in the first round of ...
The 4th Shusha Global Media Forum will bring together nearly 160 media leaders, experts and officials from 54 countries in Azerbaijan's historic city...
New strikes were reported by Iranian media overnight, including attacks near Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant around the port city of Bushehr. A U.S. official said that Washington was still committed to finding a resolution with Tehran and that technical talks were continuing.
Andy Burnham is on the brink of becoming Labour leader and prime minister after securing the overwhelming backing of Labour MPs in the first round of leadership nominations.
China has successfully tested an experimental rocket recovery system using a net attached to an offshore platform, marking a major step in its efforts to develop reusable rockets and compete with U.S. space technology.
Ukraine and the United States have reached a political agreement on licences to produce Patriot missile interceptors in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
It has been a punishing week for large parts of China, and forecasters warn the worst may not be over. After Typhoon Maysak left a trail of destruction and at least 23 people dead, Super Typhoon Bavi is now threatening the country's eastern coast.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding signed with Iran to end the conflict was "over", adding he did not want to engage with Tehran, calling the Iranian leadership "sick people".
The death toll from Venezuela's twin earthquakes has risen to 3,811, according to figures released by National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez on Wednesday.
The U.S. military said on Wednesday it launched fresh strikes on Iran to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping, triggering Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain in the latest escalation to derail efforts to end the war.
Typhoon Bavi churned southeast of Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, its winds easing overnight to just shy of 200 kph (124 mph), as authorities urged residents to stock up on supplies and brace for what could be the most powerful typhoon since 2024.
This is the last of four articles in AnewZ's series examining how conservationists are working to protect and repair damage done to the Aral Sea which lies between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Temperatures above 40°C are scorching parts of Central Asia, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that extreme heat is becoming an increasing public health threat across the region.
This is the third of four articles in AnewZ's series examining how conservationists are working to protect and repair damage done to the Aral Sea which lies between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
New strikes were reported by Iranian media overnight, including attacks near Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant around the port city of Bushehr. A U.S. official said that Washington was still committed to finding a resolution with Tehran and that technical talks were continuing.
This is the second of four articles in AnewZ's series examining how conservationists are working to protect and repair damage done to the Aral Sea which lies between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment