The prime minister serves as head of government and holds most executive powers. The president serves as a largely ceremonial head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The president had been directly elected, but under constitutional changes approved in 2017, the vote was transferred to a 300-member electoral college comprising members of Parliament, regional lawmakers, and representatives of municipal councils. The new system was employed for the first time in the December 2024 presidential election, but due to an opposition boycott in the wake of the flawed parliamentary elections in October, the only candidate was Mikheil Kavelashvili of the far-right People’s Power party, backed by GD. He was credited with 100 percent of the indirect votes. Outgoing President Salome Zurabishvili, who had been directly elected to a six-year term in 2018, denounced Kavelashvili’s election as illegitimate given its dependence on the disputed new Parliament.

The president formally appoints the prime minister based on a nomination from Parliament. Irakli Gharibashvili, the prime minister since 2021, resigned amid corruption allegations in January 2024 and was replaced by GD chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who was confirmed in his position following the October parliamentary elections.

The unicameral Parliament is composed of 150 members elected through nationwide proportional representation. Before 2024, elections had featured a mixed system that included both single-member districts and proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms.

In the October 2024 parliamentary elections, official results credited GD with 89 seats, while four opposition parties and coalitions received a combined 61 seats. The conduct of the elections was deeply flawed. Among other problems noted by observers, the secrecy of the vote was compromised in many locations, reports of vote buying were widespread, and alleged members of criminal gangs engaged in assaults and intimidation at polling stations. Rejecting the outcome as rigged by GD, all of the elected opposition groups boycotted the new Parliament.

The country’s electoral laws are generally fair, and the bodies that implement them have often done so impartially in the past. However, experts say the laws contain shortcomings, and the composition of electoral commissions is a regular point of contention. In February 2024, against the recommendation of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, Parliament transferred the power to nominate nonpartisan members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) from the president to the speaker of Parliament and eliminated the post of deputy CEC chair, a role which had been filled by opposition nominees.

In the October 2024 parliamentary elections, review mechanisms including the CEC and the courts were ineffective in preventing and remediating key voting irregularities. For example, secrecy of the ballot was widely violated due to physical features of the voting materials, even though a local NGO reportedly notified the CEC of the issue during testing. Although one lower court ruled in favor a legal challenge regarding ballot secrecy, appellate courts rejected consolidated complaints from across the country and upheld the official election results.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to the failure of available review mechanisms to effectively respond to reported election irregularities.

While Georgia hosts a dynamic multiparty system, opposition parties face barriers to political competition, including legal harassment, undue arrest, intimidation, and physical violence. Ahead of the 2024 elections, GD promised to ban the country’s main opposition parties during its next stint in office.

Violent attacks against politicians from most major opposition parties took place throughout 2024. For example, in the context of the April protests against the foreign agents bill, police beat UNM leader Levan Khabeishvili so severely that he stepped down from his post for medical reasons in June. Aleko Elisashvili, head of the Citizens party and a leader of the Strong Georgia coalition, was also severely beaten during the foreign agents bill protests. Progovernment thugs reportedly attacked opposition politicians and activists, in some cases using tasers and knives. In September, dozens of GD supporters attacked UNM election campaigners. During the pro-EU protests in December, masked thugs beat Coalition for Change members and attacked party offices, while multiple opposition leaders, including Nika Gvaramia of Coalition for Change and Elisashvili of Strong Georgia, were arrested. The pattern of attacks during 2024 represented a continuation and intensification of the previous year’s political violence.

Georgia last underwent a transfer of power between rival groups in 2012–13, when GD defeated the UNM in parliamentary and presidential elections. Factors including voter intimidation and vote buying have since impaired opposition parties’ ability to gain power through elections, and opposition parties and members have experienced significant intimidation, harassment, and violence. In 2022, media reports on leaked documents suggested that the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) engaged in surveillance of opposition party activity.

Recent elections have featured vote buying, improper use of state resources, and intimidation, including pressure on public employees and recipients of social benefits to support the ruling party. Wealthy individuals such as GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili exert significant political influence without holding political office. Ivanishvili is widely regarded as the dominant political figure in the ruling party and the country.

No laws prevent women or members of ethnic and religious minority groups from participating in politics. Electoral reforms introduced in 2020 included a gender quota for party candidate lists, but Parliament repealed this reform in May 2024, overriding a presidential veto. Women held about 23 percent of the seats in Parliament after the October elections.

Ethnic minority groups make up approximately 13 percent of the population, with ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis forming the largest communities. However, few members of Parliament belong to such groups, and ethnic minority voters, who may be more vulnerable to intimidation or economic pressure, have historically tended to vote for the ruling party.

The passage of harsh anti-LGBT+ legislation in October 2024 both demonstrated and exacerbated the political marginalization of the country’s gay and transgender populations.

Executive and legislative officials are not elected under free and fair conditions, and their ability to determine and implement government policy has been limited by Ivanishvili’s informal influence. At the end of 2023, GD appointed Ivanishvili as its “honorary chairman,” partially formalizing his role by giving him responsibility for nominating the party’s candidate for prime minister. The functioning of government has also been obstructed by the country’s high level of political polarization and partisan hostility.

Corruption persists in a wide range of domains in Georgia. The lack of independent law enforcement bodies and an independent judiciary impedes the effective application of anticorruption laws. Successful cases against high-ranking officials and those close to them are rare. The State Inspector’s Service (SIS), an official corruption investigation body, was disbanded in 2021. In 2023, the Venice Commission found that the design of the Anticorruption Bureau, which replaced some SIS functions, left it susceptible to political influence.

Transparency International Georgia documented 33 cases of alleged high-level corruption in 2024, ranging from extortion to cronyism in government procurement. For example, a former prosecutor general and close associate of Ivanishvili was accused of extorting a 10 percent stake in a gambling company from its owner. A Transparency International Georgia study released in October found that companies linked to GD officials had won state tenders worth more than 1 percent of gross domestic product in 2024 alone.

Government operations are generally subject to scrutiny by auditing bodies, the media, NGOs, and the public. However, access to public information remains uneven. Public officials’ asset declarations are regularly incomplete.

The media environment is pluralistic but highly partisan. Government figures are often aggressive toward critical journalists and have pressured unfriendly and independent media outlets. The foreign agents law adopted in June 2024 requires media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence.

Journalists were beaten, harassed, and threatened throughout 2024 while covering the foreign agents law protests, parliamentary elections, and pro-EU protests, with Transparency International Georgia recording some 200 such incidents during the year.

New rules on journalistic conduct in Parliament were issued in 2023, and in 2024 they were used to ban individual journalists who had failed to terminate interviews after the lawmaker in question declined to answer. Legislation adopted in 2023 expanded the authority of the National Communications Commission to issue fines and suspensions, drawing criticism from local rights groups and the Committee to Protect Journalists for potentially enabling censorship.

The 2024 anti-LGBT+ law restricted broadcasts of media content about transgender people or same-sex intimacy.

The Ministry of Culture has regularly worked to suppress free cultural expression. In 2023, it installed government loyalists in oversight positions at institutions pertaining to literature, film, and music.

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion but grants unique privileges to the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). During the run-up to the 2024 elections, GD proposed making Orthodox Christianity the state religion. Members of religious minority groups have reported experiencing discrimination and hostility. Batumi’s Muslim community has faced years of legal obstruction from officials, preventing the construction of a new mosque. In 2023, amendments to the defense code removed exemptions from alternative military service for clergy members, except for GOC clergy. The SSG has sometimes surveilled members of the clergy, according to 2021 press reports, tracking their personal activities and communications with journalists and diplomats.

Academic freedom is often respected. However, university student protesters sometimes face violence, surveillance, and intimidation. In June 2024, for example, assailants beat student activist Niko Managadze near Tbilisi State University after he protested a lecture by the prime minister. Scholars may also experience harassment in reprisal for their academic expression. Far-right groups prevented politician and literary scholar Levan Berdzenishvili from delivering lectures several times during 2023.

School principals and teachers are pressured to campaign for the ruling party during elections. In 2024, there were widespread allegations that the government fired teachers and principals for supporting opposition parties. Separately, award-winning teacher Lado Apkhazava was physically attacked near his home after participating in protests against the foreign agents law.

In September 2024, an Education Ministry body declined to fully renew the accreditation of Ilia State University, a prominent liberal-arts institution known for its intellectual independence and campus protests, instead imposing a one-year monitoring period. An appeal of the decision was pending at year’s end.

Georgians’ freedom to express their views has been increasingly impaired by concerns about surveillance, intimidation, and violence.

There were numerous reports during 2024 of physical assaults targeting individuals who opposed government-backed laws and policies, along with their family members. Legislation passed in 2024 also raised concerns about personal expression and privacy. The new foreign agents law requires individuals to disclose information about suspected “agents” or face potential fines, and the anti-LGBT+ law prohibited various forms of expression about gender identity and same-sex relationships.

In 2021, the SSG was revealed to have engaged in widespread surveillance of journalists, activists, clergy, and politicians. In 2022, the television station Pirveli published leaked documents implicating the government in surveilling opposition parties. GD announced in May 2024, during protests against the foreign agents bill, that it would create a public database of people who allegedly were involved in or supported violence, threats, blackmail, and other illegal actions.

Freedom of assembly is poorly upheld, with police often responding to demonstrations with excessive force. In 2024, both police and unidentified thugs employed violence against protesters, and many of those detained reported torture in police custody.

During mass demonstrations against the foreign agents law from April to June, police assaulted and arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters, and used water cannons mixed with excessive amounts of tear gas to disperse assemblies. Fines were also issued as a punishment and deterrent to further participation.

Violence by police and progovernment thugs was widespread during pro-EU protests in November and December. Numerous cases of police torture were reported, and public-sector workers allegedly faced dismissal for supporting the protests. At year’s end, Parliament adopted several legal changes aimed at discouraging protests, including the introduction of fines and administrative detention for offenses involving traffic disruptions, posters and signs, face masks, and light displays. Parents also faced potential fines for protest offenses by their children.

The law enacted in October regarding LGBT+ issues prohibited any public event that is deemed to promote transgender identity or same-sex relationships. LGBT+ groups’ right to assembly was rarely protected in the years prior to the law’s adoption, with anti-LGBT+ rioters repeatedly attacking Tbilisi Pride organizers and venues and facing little police resistance.

Score Change: The score declined from 2 to 1 due to widespread reports of physical assaults against protesters and legislation that imposed new restrictions on assembly.

Although elements of Georgia’s civil society sector had previously faced surveillance, government criticism, and interference with donors, the government and its supporters significantly increased pressure on NGOs in 2024. The foreign agents law adopted by Parliament in June requires nonprofits and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence,” a status that entails onerous and invasive reporting obligations. During mass protests against the legislation, unidentified individuals defaced NGO workers’ homes and offices, while NGO leaders and activists or their family members received threatening phone calls. Multiple NGO workers were beaten, including on live television, by presumed progovernment assailants, often resulting in hospital stays.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to the enactment of a foreign agents law that imposed onerous and stigmatizing registration requirements on civic groups, as well as an increase in violence and threats against civil society activists.

Workers are legally allowed to organize, bargain collectively, and strike, though there are some restrictions on the right to strike, including a ban on strikes by certain categories of workers. Legal protections against antiunion discrimination by employers are weak and poorly enforced. The foreign agents legislation adopted in June 2024 applied to trade unions, which are considered NGOs under Georgian law.

Executive and legislative interference in the courts remains a substantial problem, as does a lack of transparency and professionalism surrounding judicial proceedings. A small group of judges—including court chairs and members of the High Council of Justice—effectively control the rest of the judiciary; the US government imposed sanctions on four such judges in 2023 for corruption and “undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in Georgia’s judicial system.” In April 2024, the Tbilisi City Court upheld a group of judges’ appeal and halted an Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation into their asset declarations.

The High Council of Justice nominates Supreme Court judges for approval by Parliament. A judicial self-governing body elects most council members. One member is appointed by the president of Georgia, but in July 2024 the Tbilisi City Court blocked the president’s appointment of a member of the council, raising concerns about constitutional checks and balances. Over the past decade, Supreme Court nomination processes have drawn criticism for opacity, allegations of unqualified nominees, and opposition boycotts of parliamentary confirmation votes.

The law guarantees due process, but associated safeguards are not always respected. The ombudsman’s office has reported a failure to fully implement Constitutional Court rulings on due process matters, administrative delays in court proceedings, the violation of the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence, failure to observe rules surrounding detention and interrogation, and the denial of access to a lawyer upon arrest. Numerous government opponents have faced prosecutions in recent years that were widely seen as politically motivated.

Human rights watchdogs and the ombudsman’s office have expressed concern about the physical abuse of detainees during arrest and in police custody, and have noted the lack of an independent system for supervising police conduct and addressing claims of mistreatment. Violence and harsh conditions in prisons remain problems. In September 2024, the US government imposed sanctions on two senior Internal Affairs Ministry officials and other law enforcement personnel for their involvement in serious human rights abuses, including the illegitimate use of violence against protesters. Human rights organizations reported police torture of detained protesters during the postelection, pro-EU protests of November and December.

A 2014 law provides protection against discrimination based on various factors, including race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity, but it is enforced unevenly. Women and people with disabilities frequently experience employment discrimination.

In October 2024, the speaker of Parliament gave final approval to an anti-LGBT+ law, which the president had refused to sign after it was adopted the previous month. It took effect in December. The legislation prohibited expression or assemblies deemed to promote transgender identity or same-sex relationships, as well as those deemed to promote incest, effectively equating the former with the latter. It also barred transgender people from changing documents to match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth, among other provisions. LGBT+ people already faced societal discrimination and have been targets of serious violence, and transgender people receive little protection from authorities; opponents of the new law said it could exacerbate these problems.

Foreign journalists and human rights defenders who were unsafe in their home countries (primarily Russia and Belarus) and had been living in Georgia were denied reentry at the border during 2024, continuing a trend that began in 2022. The Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov was prevented from leaving the country and detained in August 2024 for possible extradition to Azerbaijan, where he would face imprisonment; he remained in Georgian custody at year’s end.

Georgians are largely free to travel and change their place of residence, employment, and education without undue interference. However, there are ongoing restrictions on travel to and from the separatist, Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and individuals who approach their de facto borders can be abducted, tortured, or killed by the territories’ local or Russian security forces. International travel is sometimes restricted without legal authority, including for Georgians who could be witnesses or defendants in criminal cases.

The legal framework and government policies are generally supportive of private business activity. However, protection for property rights remains weak, and deficiencies in judicial independence and government transparency hamper economic freedom.

Most personal social freedoms are respected, but the rights of vulnerable groups including LGBT+ people, children, and women are inadequately upheld. The anti-LGBT+ law enacted in October 2024 included provisions that reaffirmed a 2017 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, prohibited gay and transgender people from adopting children, and forbade medical interventions related to gender reassignment.

A 2017 legal amendment codified the minimum age for marriage as 18, without exception, but it is not always enforced.

Domestic violence remains a problem in Georgia. The response from police is often inadequate, though changing attitudes have contributed to more frequent reporting and better enforcement in recent years. Spousal rape is not specifically criminalized.

Unsafe conditions and inadequate legal protections for workers continue to contribute to a high rate of workplace deaths and injuries. In 2020 and 2021, Parliament passed labor reforms that introduced new rules for overtime, shift breaks, and other working conditions, while strengthening the labor inspector’s office. Although the office regularly publishes information on worker deaths and injuries and inspects workplaces, it is generally viewed as underfunded, resulting in poor enforcement.

Georgia is a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking linked to sexual exploitation and forced labor. However, according to the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2024, the government has continued serious enforcement efforts and meets minimum standards for eliminating trafficking.