TBILISI, Georgia — A former soccer star is set to become president of Georgia on Saturday as the ruling party consolidates its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s European aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

The ruling Georgian Dream party retained control of Parliament in the South Caucasus nation by winning 89 of 150 seats in an Oct. 26 vote widely seen as a referendum on integration into Europe. The opposition has accused Georgian Dream of rigging the vote with Moscow’s help. It has boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded new elections.

In the meantime, former Premier League striker Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, is expected to easily win Saturday’s vote given the ruling party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college made up of members of Parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures. That college replaced direct presidential election in a 2017 constitutional reform.

Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent, and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

Who is the current president?

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.”

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.

Who’s the ruling party presidential candidate?

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education. He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to Parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

How did opposition protests unfold?

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the Parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on Nov. 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.

Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending anti-government rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.

The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

A state Senate panel unveiled recommendations Friday morning aimed at stopping transgender athletes from playing in girl’s sports in high schools and colleges.

The five recommendations call for the creation of rules stating that people assigned male at birth cannot participate in women’s sports and requiring schools that host athletic events to provide changing facilities based on sex at birth as well as taking away the authority of high school athletic associations to regulate participation in girls’ sports and giving it to the state legislature.

The recommendations, which could also apply to private school teams when they play public schools, say the Senate should provide enforcement options for people who feel aggrieved by a school’s changing room policy, including opening schools up to lawsuits and withholding state funding to schools that do not comply.

“It is indisputable that there are biological differences between men and women,” said committee chair Greg Dolezal, a Cumming Republican. “Those biological differences result in men being able to jump higher, throw farther, run faster, swim faster, do a number of other things due to the increased bone density, larger heart, larger lung capacity, the increased muscle mass that resulted in Title IX and the recognition that we needed to have a category that was carved out specific to women.”

“We can both treat people respectfully, but we can also have an eye towards fairness in the legislative process, and that is what I hope to do as we move forward with this,” he said.

The recommendations could find their way into legislative proposals next year. Lawmakers are set to begin the annual legislative session Jan. 13, and bills targeting transgender youth have gotten traction in recent years.

This year, LGBTQ advocates celebrated at the end of the legislation when bills they described as anti-LGBTQ, including some targeting sports participation and gender-affirming medical care, fell by the wayside in the final hour. But the year before, lawmakers passed a bill banning hormone treatments care for most transgender minors, and in 2022, they sent Gov. Brian Kemp a bill leaving the decision of whether to include transgender girl athletes to the Georgia High School Association.

Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the state Senate, has put his support behind bills aimed at transgender children. The state House has taken a more skeptical stance on the issue, but House Speaker Jon Burns recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would support a ban on transgender athletes.

Jeff Graham, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Georgia Equality, said he’s longing for the leadership of former speaker David Ralston, who died in 2022.

“I am carrying around the quote from the late speaker, David Ralston, when the legislation passed two years ago that gave the Georgia High School Association the authority to set rules and regulations that he did not want to see transgender kids targeted. I wish that the level-headed compassion of Speaker Ralston can be brought back to this legislative session in 2025,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after Friday’s hearing, Graham said the number of student athletes directly affected by the bill may be tiny, but such legislation makes transgender people feel targeted and unwanted.

“The goal of the Legislature, I would like to think, is we could find common ground trying to make the world better for all kids in Georgia,” he said. “It’s easy to scapegoat some kids and in this instance, transgender kids, for discrimination, and open the door to make their life worse,” he said.