Georgia protesters clash near presidential palace
The Georgian rebellion police used pepper gas and water balls to remove the demonstrators from the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi, as the opposition organized a great demonstration in the local elections.
Director Georgian Dream Party said that 3.7 million people won the victory in an election in which two largest opposition blocks in every municipality in the South Caucasus country boycotted.
Shortly before the surveys close, a group of demonstrators tried to enter the Presidential Palace, said the Reuters witness, the opposition figures, who accused the GD, which they accused of being pro -Russian and authoritarian.
Georgia’s pro -Western opposition has been organizing protests since October last year, when GD’s critics have won a parliamentary election. The party rejected the voting charges.
One of the best pro -Western countries that once emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union, Georgia, Russia has worn out relations with the West since the occupation of Ukraine in 2022.
According to the local media, the Ministry of Health said that 21 members of the security forces and six demonstrators were injured in the clashes in the center of Tbilisi.
Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, police singer Paata Burchuladze and Georgia’s greatest opposition party, Georgia’s Rustavi-2 television and two members of the Russian state media detained five activists.
Darakhvelidze said that they were accused of asking the authorities to overthrow and sentenced to nine years of imprisonment if they were convicted.
Shortly after last year’s vote, the government met with the European Union, suddenly stopped a long -standing national goal, and triggered great demonstrations since then.
Thousands of protesters, Georgian and EU flags shaking the central Freedom Square and Rustaveli Boulevard gathered.
Davit Mzhavanadze, who participated in the demonstration, said that the protests were “certainly a pro -Russian and a deep crisis created by our authoritarian government”.
“I think this protest will continue until these demands are answered from our government properly.” He said.
The Georgian dream, which has been controlled by the founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in the country and a former prime minister, denies that he is pro -Moscow. He says he wants to join the EU while protecting peace with his great neighbor in the north.
