Tbilisi (AFP) - Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili told AFP in an exclusive interview on Saturday that she will not step down until last month’s contested parliamentary elections are re-run.

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by turmoil since the ruling Georgian Dream party declared victory in October 26 parliamentary elections that pro-EU opposition parties have decried as falsified.

They are boycotting the new parliament, while Zurabishvili has sought to annul the election results through the country’s constitutional court.

Calling herself “the only legitimate institution in the country”, Zurabishvili insisted that “as long as there are no new elections… my mandate continues”.

“Nobody outside Georgia, democratic partners, nobody has recognised (October’s) the elections,” she added.

Georgia’s newly elected parliament – which faces a legitimacy crisis – has said it will elect Zurabishvili’s replacement on December 14.

Last week, the party nominated its loyalist, far-right politician and former football international Mikheil Kavelashvili for the largely ceremonial post of president.

Under constitutional changes pushed through by Georgian Dream in 2017, the president will for the first time be chosen by an electoral college instead of a popular vote.

With the party controlling the electoral college, former Manchester City striker Kavelashvili’s election is seen as a foregone conclusion.

The parliament said the new leader’s inauguration for a five-year term would take place on December 29.

- ‘Stable transition’ -

But Zurabishvili, 72, said that “When the elections do not reflect the will of the people, then the parliament is not legitimate, the government neither, nor the president that they are to elect next week.”

Constitutional law experts, including one author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, told AFP that any decisions made by the new parliament – including

Constitutional law experts, including one author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, told AFP that any decisions made by the new parliament – including the nomination of Irakli Kobakhidze as prime minister and the upcoming presidential – are invalid.

That is because parliament had approved its own credentials in violation of a legal requirement to await a court ruling on Zurabishvili’s bid to annul the election results, they said.

Zurabishvili, a Paris-born former French diplomat, said she has set up on Saturday a “national council” consisting of opposition parties and civil society representatives, which will ensure “stability in this country”.

“I will be the representative of this legitimate, stable transition,” she said, adding that her message to the international community is: “No business with illegitimate representatives of this country. Business with us, we represent the Georgian population.”

“I am very optimistic since something is happening here that we have not seen in the post-Soviet space – which is a society taking its future in its hands.”

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Georgia against the alleged electoral fraud and in support of Zurabishvili’s efforts to achieve fresh elections.

- ‘Confident’ in EU, Washington support -

Kobakhidze’s statement on Thursday that EU-candidate Georgia will not seek to open accession talks with the European Union until 2028 ignited a new wave of mass street protests across the country.

The rallies saw riot police fire rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at pro-EU protesters gathered outside the parliament in Tbilisi.

Dozens were arrested during the crackdowns that have sparked international condemnation.

After the October vote, a group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said they had evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud.

The ruling party has denied the fraud allegations.

In recent years, critics accuse Georgian Dream – in power for more than a decade – of having moved the country away from Europe and closer to Russia.

Brussels has demanded an investigation into what it said were “serious” irregularities reported by election observers and said it will send a mission to Tbilisi in the coming weeks.

The European Parliament has adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the election results and calling for a fresh vote under international supervision.

Zurabishvili said the EU mission must “help us set the provisions for these new elections”.

“We are very confident that our partners will be where the Georgian population is,” she said, referring to Brussels and Washington.