Berlin, 14 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) – Former Georgian national football team player Mikheil Kavelashvili has been elected the country's new president, receiving 224 votes from the electoral college members in a contentious election amid ongoing political turmoil.

There was no opposition candidate in the vote, and 200 votes would have sufficed for Kavelashvili's election. One vote was declared invalid, local media reported on the basis of information from the electoral commission.

A crowd of hundreds of demonstrators protested in front of the parliament buildings against the way the vote was taken. They included sitting President Salome Zourabichvili, who has previously insisted that she will not step aside.

"Nobody elected anybody. Nothing has happened," Zourabichvili said, according to media reports.

She had earlier termed the vote, held indirectly for the first time since a change in the constitution, as a "parody."

Photo: Mikheil Kavelashvili's Facebook