E-Paper
Unrest in Georgia as protesters clash with police after ruling party wins local body polls
Violence ensured when protesters tried to enter the presidential palace in capital Tbilisi.
Clashes broke out in Georgia after the opposition party staged a massive demonstration on Saturday after the local elections. The police used pepper spray and water cannons to quell the protesters who were trying to enter the presidential palace.
Five activists were detained after the opposition parties called for “peaceful revolution” against the Georgian Dream (GD) party, news agency Reuters reported.
Twenty one security personnel and six protestors suffered injuries in the clashes, reports said.
The ruling GD party said it had secured all municipality seats across the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people in an election boycotted by the two largest opposition blocs.
Shortly before polls closed, a group of demonstrators tried to forcibly enter the presidential palace in the capital Tbilisi, Reuters quoted witness as saying. The opposition has been accusing the GD of being being pro-Russian and authoritarian.
Waving Georgian and EU flags, tens of thousands flooded Tbilisi's Freedom Square for what organisers dubbed a "national assembly", an AFP reported.
The tensions between the opposition parties and GD had been brewing since October last year when GD won the parliamentary polls, dubbed as fraudulent by critics.
Georgia's relations with the West have been frayed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Reports quoted Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze as saying the police detained five activists, including the opera singer Paata Burchuladze and two members of the United National Movement, Georgia's largest opposition party.
They are facing charges for calling for the overthrow of the authorities and face up to nine years in prison, if convicted.
The government froze accession talks to the European Union soon after last year's vote, abruptly halting a longstanding national goal and triggering large demonstrations that have continued since.
Georgian Dream is led by founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia and former prime minister. He has denied the allegations that his party is pro-Moscow.
(With agency inputs)
