Oct. 5 (UPI) — Police in Georgia have made five arrests after clashing with anti-government protestors outside the presidential palace in the country’s capital, Tbilisi.
Police used water cannons and pepper spray to push back demonstrators as tensions persist in the Caucasus nation after the Georgian Dream Party won last year’s elections, which the pro-European Union opposition party has claimed was stolen. Since the vote, the government has stalled its efforts to join the European Union, the BBC reported.
The protests took place on the same day as local elections, which the opposition party has largely boycotted.
The Georgian Dream Party claimed nearly 80% of the vote, and claimed victory in nearly every municipality.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that protestors “attempted to force their way inside” the presidential palace and accused organizers of the Saturday rally of inciting violence, according to Bloomberg News.
Former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvile accused protestors in a social media post of holding the demonstrations to “discredit” months of opposition protests in opposition of the ruling party.
“This mockery of taking over the presidential palace can only be staged by the regime to discredit the 310 days peaceful protest of the Georgian people,” she wrote.
Paata Burchuladze, one of the protest organizers, was among those arrested during the demonstrations.
At least 21 police officers and six protestors were taken to the hospital with injuries.
