Tbilisi: Georgia’s political tensions escalated sharply this weekend as the ruling populist Georgian Dream party (GD) celebrated a claimed sweeping victory in Saturday’s local polls, while Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze vowed arrests and prosecution for opposition protesters following clashes at the Presidential Palace.
The local elections served as the first major electoral test for the ruling party since a heavily disputed parliamentary vote a year ago, which plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and effectively froze its European Union accession bid.
Election Results and Voter Turnout
According to preliminary results released by the Central Election Commission (CEC), the Georgian Dream party secured municipal council majorities in every municipality.
- The GD party reportedly scored landslide wins in mayoral races across all cities.
- In the nationwide proportional vote for municipal councils, the CEC’s preliminary results indicated that Georgian Dream led with 80.7% of the vote.
- The combined opposition parties that participated received 19.3%.
- The overall voter turnout for the municipal elections stood at 40.93%, down from 51.92% in the 2021 local elections.
- The boycott by the main opposition forces, including the jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), likely contributed to the high GD percentage and lower overall turnout.
Arrests and Allegations of ‘Coup’
Prime Minister Kobakhidze, referring to the post-election unrest, claimed his government foiled an “attempted coup planned by foreign intelligence services.”
- Georgia’s Interior Ministry confirmed the opening of an investigation into “calls to violently alter Georgia’s constitutional order or overthrow state authority.”
- Five protest leaders were arrested and face up to nine years in prison on charges related to the alleged attempted overthrow.
- Among the arrested is Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned opera singer and activist, who had read a declaration at the rally claiming “power returns to the people” and branding the government “illegitimate.” Pro-opposition Pirveli TV reported that the 70-year-old was detained at a Tbilisi hospital’s intensive care unit where he was receiving treatment for a heart attack.
The arrests followed a mass rally on Saturday where tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators gathered in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square. A group of protesters later attempted to enter the presidential palace, leading to riot police using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
The Prime Minister declared that “No one will go unpunished… many more must expect sentences for the violence they carried out against the state and law enforcement.”
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, noted that the elections took place “amid severe political reprisals against opposition figures and civil society,” reporting that some 60 people—including key opposition figures, journalists, and activists—have been jailed over the past year.