Protesters Attempt to Seize Presidential Palace following Georgian Municipal Elections

Georgia’s Presidential Palace in Tbilisi, which protestors attempted to occupy (Wikimedia Commons).

Georgia held municipal elections on October 4, in which the ruling Georgian Dream Party secured landslide victories in all mayors’ races and large majorities in all municipal councils across the country, according to Civil Georgia. However, most opposition parties boycotted the vote on election day, opting instead to stage protests against what they see as democratic backsliding, per Euro News. Beginning peacefully, the opposition-led protest in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, turned violent after Murtaz Zodelava, an opposition leader, called on attendees to take over the Presidential Palace, Civil Georgia reports.

Opposition parties branded the October 4 protests a “National Assembly,” with renowned Georgian opera singer Paata Burchuladze calling the demonstrations “a historic chance…and perhaps our last chance, to take back our country,” according to Civil Georgia. Participants called for the arrest of high-ranking Georgian Dream members, including Georgia’s Prime Minister, Parliament Speaker, and the head of the Security Services. After Zodelava’s calls to take over the Presidential Palace, protestors scaled the fence surrounding it, but were repelled by riot police stationed inside.

Prosecutors charged 48 people in connection with the attack on the Presidential Palace, 44 of whom are being held in pre-trial detention, per Civil Georgia. Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Dream member serving as Speaker of Parliament, called the October 4 protests a “coup” “masterminded, funded, and engineered from abroad” in a post on Twitter. Protest organizers face attempted coup charges.

The October 4 municipal elections were widely seen as a referendum on the Georgian Dream Party, which won parliamentary elections last year in a result contested by opposition parties, which accused it of fraud and vote-buying. Georgian Dream has sought to bring Georgia closer to Russia, leading Brussels to freeze Georgia’s EU accession bid, according to Radio France Internationale. Georgia’s pro-EU opposition has continuously held peaceful mass protests in the wake of its defeat in last year’s parliamentary elections.