Two new judges, Goga Kikalishvili and Sergo Metopishvili, were appointed to fill the two vacant seats at Georgia’s Constitutional Court, with the appointments feared to leave the key judicial body, long accused of pro-government leanings, now almost fully dominated by loyalists of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Kikilashvili was appointed by Georgian Dream-elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili, while Metopishvili was selected by the Supreme Court’s Plenum. Three of the nine judges of the Georgian Constitutional Court are appointed by the President, three are elected by Parliament by a majority of at least three-fifths of its full membership, and the remaining three are appointed by the Supreme Court. Judges are appointed to serve 10-year terms.
The appointments come as the Constitutional Court is set to consider a Georgian Dream-filed constitutional lawsuit seeking to ban several key opposition parties, including the United National Movement, Ahali/Coalition for Change, Lelo/Strong Georgia, Federalists and, most recently, Gakharia For Georgia.
Kikilashvili, 37, will replace Constitutional Court Judge Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze, whose 10-year term expires on October 2. Kverenchkhiladze was among the few judges known for issuing dissenting opinions in rulings perceived to favor the ruling party’s positions. The term of another judge known for similar dissenting opinions, Teimuraz Tughushi, is also set to expire in the coming months, while another, Irine Imerlishvili, prematurely quit the Court last year.
Recently appointed Kikilashvili is the son of former Constitutional Court Judge Khvicha Kikilashvili, who was appointed to the Court by the Supreme Court’s Plenum in April 2020 but resigned in 2025. Khvicha Kikilashvili was among the six judges who ruled in favor of finding that then-President Zurabishvili had violated the Constitution in the impeachment case.
Goga Kikilashvili has been an invited lecturer at several Georgian universities and, since October 2023, has served as a non-judge member of the High Council of Justice of Georgia, a supervisory body for the Georgian judiciary.
The second appointed judge is 65-year-old Sergo Metopishvili, who has served as a judge of Tbilisi City Court since 2016 and, since July 2025, as a judge of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals. He previously chaired Tbilisi City Court’s Civil Cases Panel and later headed its Investigation, Pre-Trial, and Substantive Hearing Panel.
Metopishvili has long been considered by critics to be part of Georgia’s “judicial clan” — a group of powerful judges accused of wielding significant influence over the country’s courts. He has been among judges who opposed the introduction of a judicial “vetting” mechanism, which envisaged external integrity checks of judges as part of Georgia’s judicial reform in 2024, arguing that it could potentially undermine judicial independence and Georgia’s sovereignty.
‘No More Dissenting Opinions’
The latest appointments have drawn criticism from opposition figures and civil society representatives.
Nika Gvaramia, leader of the opposition Ahali party, linked Kikilashvili’s appointment directly to the Constitutional Court case seeking to ban opposition parties.
“Soon he [Goga Kikilashvili] will be reviewing the case on the abolition of all of Georgia’s major opposition parties, and, of course, he won’t embarrass his father,” Gvaramia wrote on Facebook.
Gvaramia also sharply criticized Metopishvili’s appointment, writing that “the occupation of the Constitutional Court is complete: today the Supreme Court filled the last vacancy and appointed Sergo Metopishvili, one of the clan’s most odious sonder [referring to “sondercommando” Nazi SS death squads, used in Georgian as a denigrating term for militant partisan supporters], as judge.”
Gvaramia further linked the appointments to Georgian Dream’s repeated addition of parties to the opposition-ban lawsuit, which critics have believed the GD used to artificially extend the court’s deadline. Gvaramia argued that the process had been prolonged until there would be no judge left on the bench willing to issue a dissenting opinion.
Nona Kurdovanidze, former head of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), also criticized Metopishvili’s appointment, saying that “dissenting opinions will soon no longer be written at the Constitutional Court.”
Georgian Dream initially filed its Constitutional Court lawsuit in November 2025, seeking to ban three major opposition forces — the United National Movement, Ahali/Coalition for Change and Lelo/Strong Georgia. In April 2026, the ruling party withdrew the lawsuit and submitted a revised version adding the Federalists. Critics said the move effectively restarted the Court’s nine-month period for reviewing the case.
In September, Georgian Dream decided to add former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party to the case. The ruling party said the decision was prompted by the party’s refusal to recognize the constitutional order and the legitimacy of the Government, while critics described the move as a tactic to further extend the Court’s deadline for ruling on the case.
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