Participants in the protest following the municipal elections clashed with police in central Tbilisi. Demonstrators attempted to storm the presidential palace and managed to briefly break into the courtyard of the complex. The police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Many opposition representatives boycotted the elections, which took place amid unprecedented pressure from the authorities on political opponents.
But the country's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the victory of the ruling party "Georgian Dream." This data was later confirmed by the country's Central Election Commission.
What Happened Near the Palace
Protests in Georgia have been ongoing for over 300 days. They began after the parliamentary elections held in October 2024, which resulted in a victory for "Georgian Dream."
The opposition accused the authorities of violations, did not recognize the election results, and refused to take seats in parliament. The newly appointed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a four-year delay in negotiations for Georgia's EU membership — which also caused sharp discontent among citizens of Georgia who support European integration.
Since then, protesters have blocked the central avenue of the Georgian capital every evening, although their numbers have significantly dwindled during this time. On October 4, tens of thousands of people gathered again in central Tbilisi.
The rally was peaceful until part of the demonstrators, at the organizers' call, moved from the mass rally towards the presidential palace. Prior to this, a declaration of the "national assembly" — as the organizers called the gathering on October 4 — was read from the stage set up there, calling for the transfer of power to the Georgian people.
Clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers began when part of the demonstrators tore down the gates of the presidential palace and stormed into the courtyard of the complex.
The demonstrators began to erect barricades, and then a fire broke out on some of them.
One of the leaders of the Georgian opposition, former President Salome Zourabichvili, sharply condemned such actions by the demonstrators.
"This parody of a takeover of the presidential palace could only be staged by the regime to discredit 310 days of peaceful protests by the Georgian people," she wrote on the social network X.
As our correspondent in Tbilisi, Nina Akhmeteli, reports, the municipal elections took place against a backdrop of unprecedented pressure on the opposition and civil society in the country: some opposition leaders are under arrest, and the accounts of several human rights and monitoring NGOs are frozen.
Three of the four leaders of the opposition "Coalition for Change" received prison sentences for refusing to appear before a parliamentary commission created to investigate alleged crimes by the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the "United National Movement" (UNM), which was in power until 2012.
The opposition considers the commission illegitimate and its work biased.
The fourth leader of the "Coalition," Elene Khoshtaria, was detained in September for vandalizing the ruling party's campaign banners.
