Georgians vote in key local polls after Saakashvili’s arrest

Voters are casting ballots in closely watched municipal elections a day after former president was arrested.

Voters in Georgia are casting ballots in closely watched municipal elections, a day after former president and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili returned from exile and was arrested.

The detention of the country’s foremost opposition figure raised the stakes in Saturday’s polls seen as a key test for the Georgian Dream party, the increasingly unpopular governing party.

Saakashvili, 53, the founder of Georgia’s main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), on Friday said he had returned from Ukraine, where he heads a Ukrainian government agency steering reforms.