Police crack down on Georgia election protests as parliament opening nears
Street protests in Tbilisi turned rough as police detained protesters who question last months election results. Opposition groups and president challenge the vote while blocking main avenue with tents
Police in tbilisi used heavy-handed tactics against anti-government protesters on tue 11/19‚ detaining several demonstrators who dont accept recent election outcome. Law-enforcement officers used pepper-spray and rough take-downs (dragging some people across pavement) during the confrontation
The ruling party Georgian Dream got 54% of votes in oct 26th election‚ but opposition groups say numbers dont add up; two US-based polling firms claim such results are statistically impossible. Salome Zourabichvili‚ the countryʼs president took legal action by filing a case with constitutional court
Protesters set-up make-shift camp on citys main street for two nights before police cleared them out. The interior ministry claims demonstrators blocked traffic illegally; however they didnt mention any arrests in their statement. Several members of Coalition for Change got injuries during the clean-up
- Georgian Dream faces accusations of having pro-moscow stance
- Opposition says current government blocks EU membership chances
- Three opposition parties want to stop parliament from starting work
- Police detained and later freed some protesters
International watchdogs including OSCE pointed to serious problems with voting process: voter threats‚ money-for-votes schemes and ballot-box stuffing happened during election day. Still they stopped short of calling it completely fake. The situation gets more tense as new parliament session approaches in late nov
