President challenges election results as Georgia cracks down on protesters
Al Jazeera
Police clash with pro-West protesters as Zurabishvili demands annulment of October re-election of Georgian Dream government, accused of increasing authoritarianism and Russian links.
Police in Georgia have arrested more than a dozen people in a crackdown on protests against the re-election of the Georgian Dream party in last month’s parliamentary election.
At least 16 people were detained on Tuesday as police clashed with protesters at a camp in the centre of the capital, Tbilisi. Representatives for President Salome Zurabishvili announced that the pro-Western head of state had launched a legal challenge to the election, which handed the ruling Georgian Dream a fourth term in power.
Zurabishvili has asked the constitutional court to annul the results of the October 26 vote “over widespread violations of voting universality and ballot secrecy”, according to her lawyer Eka Beselia.
Leaders of three of the four opposition parties that won seats have called for daily protests to prevent the new session of parliament from opening later in November.
Georgian Dream’s opponents cast the party as pro-Russian and say its continued rule will torpedo the country’s chances of joining the European Union.
