BATUMI, Georgia (AP) — The Constitutional Court in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia began hearings Wednesday on a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party seeking to ban five major opposition parties, a move critics say would effectively eliminate political competition.
The lawsuit is the latest step in the unrelenting crackdown on dissent that has engulfed Georgia in recent years in response to mass protests that erupted after the government halted talks on joining the European Union.
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Demonstrators with national flags rally in the Georgian capital despite the harsh crackdown on dissent and tightened rules on public assemblies in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators gather near the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators gather near the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A security guard stands at the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators carry a Georgian national flag during a rally despite the harsh crackdown on dissent and tightened rules on public assemblies in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
The authorities have tried to curb the protests, which have raged almost daily since November 2024, with mass arrests, fines and by tightening rules on public assemblies, as well as passing a wave of laws targeting rights groups, nongovernmental organizations and independent media.
Critics say some of the laws were modeled on legislation in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has harshly stifled dissent.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse in the Black Sea city of Batumi as the seven-judge panel took up the case against the country’s main pro-Western opposition groups: the United National Movement, Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia–Lelo, the Federalists and Gakharia for Georgia.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the parties’ activities unconstitutional and outlaw them, alleging that they seek to overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional order and undermine Georgia’s independence and territorial integrity. Hearings are scheduled to continue through Friday.
Opposition leaders reject the accusations and say Georgian Dream is using the courts to remove its main competitors before the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2028.
“It’s not only banning political parties,” said Irakli Pavlenishvili, deputy chairman of the United National Movement. “It is the end of democracy for Georgia.”
Central to the lawsuit is the opposition’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the elected parliament, which the plaintiffs describe as part of a campaign of sabotage.
Four of the five targeted parties collectively won about 38% of the vote and secured seats in the 2024 parliamentary election, according to official results. Georgian Dream won the election, cementing its longtime dominance of Georgian politics.
The United National Movement, Coalition for Change and Strong Georgia–Lelo gave up their seats, saying the election was rigged. Gakharia for Georgia is the only opposition party that remains in parliament, with 11 seats out of 150.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze defended the lawsuit Tuesday, arguing that electoral support should not determine whether a party is allowed to operate and described Georgian opposition as “liberal fascists.”
“What matters is the policies political parties pursue and whether they are inherently unconstitutional,” Kobakhidze said. “That is precisely what we demonstrate in our lawsuit.”
Zurab Girchi Japaridze, a leader of Coalition for Change, said the goal was to prevent opposition politicians from challenging Georgian Dream in 2028.
“They basically want to get rid of all political leaders and political parties that took part in 2024 elections,” he said.
Japaridze warned that if the Constitutional Court sides with Georgian Dream, opposition leaders could end up in prison or exile and hundreds of people who appeared on opposition electoral lists could be barred from participating in politics.
It would mean "that any critical voice, any dissent will be deemed unconstitutional, period,” said Ana Buchukuri of Gakharia for Georgia. She said she believed “that the ban will happen.”
Sandro Baramidze, who manages Transparency International Georgia’s human rights and rule of law program, said the lawsuit failed to establish constitutional grounds for banning any of the parties.
The Constitution allows political parties to be banned for a handful of reasons, including plotting a violent coup or fomenting hatred or hostilities, he said.
“None of these grounds are present in this particular case,” Baramidze said, adding that a ruling in favor of the lawsuit would be “completely arbitrary.”
Demonstrators with national flags rally in the Georgian capital despite the harsh crackdown on dissent and tightened rules on public assemblies in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators gather near the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators gather near the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A security guard stands at the entrance of Georgia's Constitutional Court as it hears a lawsuit by the ruling Georgian Dream party to ban five major opposition parties in Batumi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Demonstrators carry a Georgian national flag during a rally despite the harsh crackdown on dissent and tightened rules on public assemblies in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Maine Republican Susan Collins has promoted her reputation as one of the most independent U.S. senators and she is using the waning days of the election season to sell that message to voters by campaigning with a former Democratic colleague who has endorsed her.
Collins is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson, a onetime state Senate president, and on Wednesday she made appearances with Joe Manchin, a West Virginian who became an independent late in his career before retiring.
After stopping for breakfast at Simones' Hot Dog Stand in Lewiston, Collins spoke of how she and Manchin were “part of every piece of bipartisan legislation that passed and became law” during their time together in office.
Manchin said to lose Collins would be “to lose the soul of the Senate.” He praised her independent streak, her willingness to buck Republican President Donald Trump and her record of fighting for Maine's interests.
“This is a true blue-blooded Maine person who knows exactly where she came from,” Manchin said.
They stopped later a New Balance shoe facility in Norway. Jackson, 58, is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Portland with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive congresswoman from New York.
Collins, 73, is in what may be her toughest reelection fight as she seeks her sixth term.
It's only the second time that she's sought reelection in a midterm with a sitting Republican president, and the national trends are much less favorable to the GOP than they were the last time she did so, in 2002. Trump's approval has fallen well below where it was when he took office last year, and a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a strong majority of voters want change in Washington.
Collins has been working to persuade voters that she is independent of Trump and willing to break with him. In Manchin, she enlisted a politician who was one of the most moderate voices in the Senate. Manchin said in 2023 that Trump would “ destroy democracy in America” if he was elected to a second term.
Among the few dozen Collins supporters at the Lewiston event was Mike Marcotte.
“I may not have always been a fan of her complete package of votes, but when I look at the vitriol that's in the U.S. Senate right now, we need more people like Susan Collins,” he said.
Jackson got a late start on campaigning after the party's initial nominee existed the race, but trails Collins in the money race by less than $3 million after an aggressive quarter in which he raised more than $20 million. Jackson has campaigned relentlessly and his events have drawn hundreds. Collins has largely stuck to smaller appearances.
Some of Jackson's backers demonstrated across the street from the hot dog stand. A few held signs bearing the face of Brett Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court justice whom Collins voted to confirm and whose vote eventually helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
“Someone needs to stand up and be a check on Donald Trump and his harmful policies,” said David Sysko.
Collins has broken with Trump and Republicans over the years. She voted to convict him at his impeachment trial in 2021. Increasingly during the campaign, she has worked to distance herself from the president as Democrats argue that she is too close to him.
Collins said in early October that she is “not exactly his favorite senator,” and that she did not expect Trump to campaign in Maine. He has steered clear of the state with the Nov. 3 election nearing.
Pinning Collins to Trump is central to the Democrats’ strategy. In one ad, a nurse says the state is in a healthcare crisis “because of Susan Collins and Donald Trump,” citing Collins’ vote for Trump’s push for Medicaid cuts. Collins did vote to advance the bill in a procedural move to open debate, but ultimately voted against it.
Trump also was a major focus of four contentious debates between the candidates this month, where Collins sought to distance herself from the president and Jackson repeatedly accused her of doing Trump's bidding.
Asked at the final debate to name a time in which she bucked her own party and succeeded, Collins gave the example of rallying support against Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed as defense secretary.
Democrats seized on the moment and released a statement that said the exchange “underscores a central question in the Maine Senate race: Does Collins, a Republican in a state that disapproves of President Donald Trump and has grown bluer in recent years, stand up to her party enough to earn the independent streak she has staked her career on?”
Jackson has characterized Collins as out of touch with the struggles of working-class people in Maine. He has described Collins as a “rubber stamp” for the president and criticized her votes on Kavanaugh and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's second-term health secretary. Collins has said she does not regret either vote.
Republican ads against Jackson, a logger from northern Maine, have focused more on accusations of his having a volatile personality and behaving like a bully with female colleagues. Jackson has denied those accusations.
Collins distanced herself on Wednesday from a Republican super PAC attack ad that she said “should be taken down.”
The senator was a top target of Democrats in 2020 when she defeated challenger Sara Gideon by nearly 9 percentage points. Collins is the only Republican senator from New England, a distinction she has had since January 2013.
In this photo taken with a smartphone, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., tour a New Balance shoe factory in Norway, Maine, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)
Sen. Susan Collins speaks to diners at a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sen. Susan Collins (R) looks to Troy Jackson (D) as he answers a question during the final Maine U.S. Senate debate in Bangor, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (Gregory A. Rec/Portland Press Herald via AP, Pool)
Protesters hold photos of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh near a campaign stop by Sen. Susan Collins Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sen. Susan Collins, with former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, left, talk with Jimmy Simones at his restaurant Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sen. Susan Collins, with former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, speaks to reporters following a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sen. Susan Collins listens as former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to reporters following a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
