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 military.

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 December 2024, but due to an opposition boycott in the wake of the flawed parliamentary elections, the only candidate was the GD-backed Mikheil Kavelashvili of the far-right People’s Power party. He received 100 percent of the indirect votes. Outgoing President Salome Zurabishvili 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, prime minister since 2021, resigned amid corruption allegations in 2024 and was replaced by GD chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who was confirmed in his position following 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 elections were deeply flawed. Among other problems observers noted, 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, all opposition groups boycotted the new Parliament.

Local council elections took place in October 2025, with most opposition parties boycotting rather than participating in what they described as a highly flawed process. Local election observation missions were canceled after the British Embassy, which had planned grants to support the initiative, canceled them over legal “uncertainty” regarding a law requiring foreign donors to obtain government approval before disbursing grants to local groups. Georgian authorities did not invite Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election monitors to participate in a timely manner, preventing them from observing the polls. Media organizations and rights groups reported that the elections took place as authorities’ campaign to pressure the opposition, protesters, independent media, and civil society continued.

The country’s electoral laws are generally fair, and the bodies that implement them have often done so impartially in the past. However, the laws contain shortcomings, and legislation has deteriorated in recent years. In 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 that had been filled by opposition nominees.

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

In 2025, parliament passed new rules on the operations of election observers that prohibited them from processing data related to voter verification, and from requiring voters to show identification documents. Election monitors said the new rules would in particular disrupt efforts to identify “voting carousels”—a term that describes attempts to vote on behalf of another person, or voting multiple times—that they said was a primary method of election fraud in Georgia.

While Georgia hosts a dynamic multiparty system, opposition parties face barriers to political competition, including legal harassment, undue arrest, intimidation, and violence.

Ahead of the 2024 elections, GD promised to ban the country’s main opposition parties during its next term in office. In 2025, GD and allied lawmakers approved amendments giving the Constitutional Court authority to ban a party if the party’s goals and composition matched those of a party that had already been banned. In October, GD filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court aiming to outlaw three opposition groups including UNM. The appeal claimed the parties had sought to “overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional order of Georgia” in connection with alleged human rights abuses in the case of the UNM, as well as attempts by the opposition to dispute past election results.

Violent attacks against opposition politicians continue to be reported. For example, in January 2025, Giorgi Gakharia, the leader of For Georgia, was beaten in a hotel lobby in Batumi and hospitalized for resulting injuries. The For Georgia party claimed the attack was an act of intimidation by GD. Several major opposition figures were assaulted in 2024.

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 2025, the Georgian Dream government engaged in a crackdown on opposition political parties. In June, eight opposition figures were sentenced to several months in prison for failing to appear at a GD-led parliamentary committee tasked with investigating alleged crimes by the previous UNM government and other officials; two, the leaders of the opposition Lelo–Strong Georgia alliance, were later pardoned by President Kavelashvili, who said the move was necessary if October’s local elections were to be competitive. In September, Levan Khabeishvili of the UNM was arrested over a public pledge to pay police officers if they refused to disperse protesters, and calling for a “peaceful revolution” on election day in October. In November, eight major opposition figures including some charged previously faced new charges of “crimes committed against the state;” a number of those accused were either serving sentences or in pretrial detention. By year’s end, many opposition leaders were in prison, facing charges, or in exile.

Additionally, in June, UNM party leader Tina Bokuchava said that her husband was kidnapped and forced to film a video in which he apologized for an insult levied against GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili’s son seven years earlier.

Score Change: The score declined from 2 to 1 because opposition parties and leaders have faced a worsening pattern of harassment, physical assaults, and legal penalties that has made it extremely difficult for them to compete in elections.

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 political office. Ivanishvili is regarded as the dominant political figure in the ruling party and 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, but Parliament repealed this reform in May 2024. Women hold about 17 percent of the seats in Parliament.

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 2024 exacerbated the political marginalization of the gay and transgender populations. The law, among other provisions, banned speech or media content that is deemed to promote same-sex relationships or transgender identity.

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

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 continues to document cases of alleged high-level corruption involving government members, parliamentary deputies, judges, and municipal officials. Cases in 2025 included suspicious campaign donations, alleged illegal income, and apparent conflicts of interest, among other items.

Government operations are subject to scrutiny by auditing bodies, the media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the public. However, access to public information remains uneven. Public officials’ asset declarations are regularly incomplete. In recent years, significant legislation has been frequently passed in fast-tracked processes that leave little time for substantive debate. In 2025, parliament repealed legislation that mandated that NGOs provide input in public decision-making. Also during the year, new rules took effect allowing only those who secured permission from the High Council of Justice to take photo, video, and audio recordings in courts. Cronyism in state procurement prevents effective and fair competition, despite formal transparency.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to a series of legal and practical changes in recent years that have reduced the transparency of official proceedings.

The media environment is pluralistic but highly partisan. Journalists regularly face violence in carrying out their work. Government figures are often aggressive toward critical journalists and have pressured unfriendly and independent media outlets.

Journalists were beaten, harassed, and threatened throughout 2024 and 2025 while covering the foreign-agents law protests, parliamentary elections, and pro-EU protests, with Transparency International Georgia recording some 200 such incidents during 2024 alone.

In 2025, Mzia Amaghlobeli, the co-founder of two prominent media outlets, was charged and sentenced to two years in prison in August for slapping a regional police chief. Press freedom groups viewed the charges and sentencing as disproportionate and politically motivated. In June, reports emerged that GD had filed complaints against three opposition-oriented television stations in the country for using expressions like “regime prisoners” and “illegitimate parliament;” the complaints were brought under recently approved legislation regulating coverage standards for broadcasters on air and on their social media platforms. Earlier, in February, the television station Mtavari TV, known for government criticism and coverage of the opposition, stopped broadcasting due to a financial crisis. The outlet’s journalists alleged that the crisis was engineered by the station’s owner at the behest of the government. New legislation prohibits the media from using electronic devices to cover court hearings.

At least four media organizations were investigated by the anticorruption bureau for compliance with foreign-agents legislation, with authorities requesting extensive information on their grant agreements.

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

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion but grants unique privileges to the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC).

Members of religious minority groups have reported` 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 GOC clergy.

Academic freedom has come under pressure in Georgia. In recent years, university student protesters have faced violence, surveillance, and intimidation, as universities became major hubs for antigovernment protest activity. School principals and teachers have been pressured to campaign for the ruling party during elections, and in 2024, there were widespread allegations that the government fired teachers and principals for supporting opposition parties. In March 2025, two lecturers from Tbilisi State University’s law faculty who had reportedly been involved in pro-EU protest activity were dismissed, with opposition figures and one of the lecturers characterizing the dismissals as politically motivated. The same month, students who had been protesting for weeks at the Shota Rustaveli Theater and Film University were fined 5,000 lari ($1,800) for protesting in a university building. The students were fined under a new amendment that banned protests in closed spaces without securing permission from the owner, a measure some rights advocates called unconstitutional. Allegations emerged in media that dismissals in the fall at the National Assessment and Examinations Center (NAEC), a public agency under the Ministry of Education that oversaw state-administered exams, had been politically motivated.

In 2024, the Education Ministry 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.

In October 2025, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a major reform proposal for Georgia’s education system. Critics said the changes were designed by political committees and without input from educators or independent experts and would allow the government undue control over university staffing decisions.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to the government’s escalating efforts to exert political control over schools and universities.

Georgians’ freedom to express their views has been increasingly impaired by concerns about surveillance, intimidation, and violence. There have been numerous physical assaults in recent years targeting individuals who opposed government-backed laws and policies.

Legislation passed in 2025 raised concerns about personal expression and privacy. Legislative amendments adopted in June shifted the burden of proof in defamation cases to the defendant, effectively requiring defendants to prove their innocence rather than requiring the plaintiff to prove the defendant’s guilt. Recent amendments have made insulting officeholders an administrative offense punishable by fines and up to 45 days administrative detention. Two activists were fined in May under the new rules following a verbal altercation with a GD deputy at a restaurant, among other such cases reported during the year.

In 2021, the State Security Service of Georgia (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. In 2025, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association expressed concerns about potentially unlawful collection and processing of personal data with regard to the government’s introduction of facial-recognition camera evidence in courts.

In 2024, the anti-LGBT+ law prohibited various forms of expression about gender identity and same-sex relationships.

Freedom of assembly is poorly upheld, with police often responding to demonstrations with excessive force. In 2024, both police and nonstate actors employed violence against protesters, and many of those detained reported torture in police custody. Several more attacks against protesters were reported in 2025, and credible allegations of harsh treatment of detained protesters in custody continued.

During mass demonstrations in 2024, police assaulted and arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters, and used water cannons mixed with excessive amounts of tear gas to disperse assemblies. A November 2025 BBC report said it had found evidence that the government used a World War I-era chemical weapon against protesters the previous year. Fines were also issued as a punishment and deterrent to further protest participation. Public-sector workers allegedly faced dismissal for supporting antigovernment protests.

In 2024 Parliament adopted 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. New laws introduced in 2025 increased potential fines for unauthorized assembly and introduced more stringent authorization requirements for protests in various locations.

The law enacted in October 2024 regarding LGBT+ issues prohibited any public event that is deemed to promote transgender identity or same-sex relationships.

Numerous NGOs operate in Georgia, but the government and its supporters have increased pressure on such groups since 2024.

In April 2025, the parliament adopted a more restrictive “foreign agents” law than the one passed in 2024. The new version required both individuals and entities to register as foreign agents if they met vaguely defined criteria for being under the influence of a foreign principle or acting upon their behalf, and prompted criticism from domestic activists and international rights monitors who said the law threatened legitimate civil society activity. The government investigated a number of NGOs under the law during the year. The government also passed legislation requiring government approval of all foreign grants issued in the country.

Additionally, in August, the bank accounts of several prominent NGOs were frozen for allegedly funding equipment used during violent clashes between protesters and police in 2024, a move that drew alarm from rights advocates.

During mass protests against the 2024 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 nonstate actors, often resulting in hospitalization.

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 employer antiunion discrimination are weak and poorly enforced.

Executive and legislative interference in the courts remains a substantial problem, as does a lack of transparency and professionalism surrounding judicial proceedings.

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. Georgian rights groups say numerous individuals remain unduly detained in relation to participation in antigovernment protests, and reports of additional due process violations and allegations of serious abuses in custody against them have continued.

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.

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 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.

Georgians are largely free to travel and change their place of residence, employment, and education without undue interference. In September 2025, the parliament passed legislation providing for up to 16-year travel bans following the completion of a sentence for individuals convicted of serious financial crimes, effective until they repay damages to victims. A GD deputy said the law was “inspired” by the case against Giorgi Bachiasvili, formerly a close associate of GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili; Ivanishvili claimed that Bachiashvili had stolen millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency from him. Bachiashvili fled the country in March 2025 during his embezzlement trial, and was sentenced in absentia the same month to 11 years’ imprisonment. In May, he said he was abducted in the United Arab Emirates and forcibly returned to Georgia, where he remained imprisoned at year’s end.

There are ongoing restrictions on travel to and from the separatist, Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 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.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 due to a law that allowed lengthy travel bans for those convicted of serious financial crimes, as well as the alleged abduction and forced repatriation of Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former associate of the head of Georgia’s ruling party.

The legal framework and government policies are generally supportive of private business activity. However, cronyism harms competition for government contracts, 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 most recent US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, the government has continued serious enforcement efforts and meets minimum standards for eliminating trafficking.