Police in Georgia clashed with protesters in central Tbilisi protesting last month’s controversial election that they say was stolen by the government.
Protesters set up tents and barricades at a major intersection near Tbilisi State University and security and riot police arrested several people as they moved in to clear the area.
Georgia’s pro-Western opposition accused the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party of using intimidation and voter fraud to win last month’s parliamentary election.
Georgia Dream denies vote fraud. The result was recognized by the central election commission although it was not endorsed by Western polling groups.
The European Union and the United States have backed opposition calls for an investigation into the October 26 election, seen in Georgia as a choice between a future within the European Union or a spin. return to Russia’s orbit.
After years of increasingly authoritarian rule under the Georgian Dream, this is considered the most important vote since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets to protest the controversial results, but the election commission’s decision on Saturday to confirm the ruling party’s victory prompted further protests in the center of the capital.
The committee said GD won 53.9% of the votes and 89 seats in the 150-seat parliament. However, Edison Research, one of two prestigious US firms that conduct polls of opposition television channels, said the commission’s numbers could not be explained “by statistical differences”. often”.
After opposition protesters, many of them students, set up tents and barricades near Tbilisi State University, police arrived early Tuesday morning to disperse them by force.
A cameraman working for an opposition television channel was among those arrested and several people were said to have been injured.
One of the opposition leaders, Helene Khoshtaria, told the BBC that the protests would continue because they were fighting for people’s votes and fighting for Georgia’s European future.
The EU said it would send a delegation to Georgia to discuss “irregularities” in the vote, warning that the government in Tbilisi would not be able to become a member of the European Union “otherwise There are drastic changes.”
