Clashes Protested For The Georgia Election, 16 People Detained

UNSPLASH/Harri Kuokkanen ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Georgia police detained 16 people in the capital Tbilisi after clashes with protesters opposing the outcome of parliamentary elections last month.

The video shows police's Slamming' some protesters onto the street and dragging them onto the pavement. Several officers fired pepper sprays from close range.

Georgia Interpress news agency said 16 people were detained and three people have been released.

Protesters in the South Kaufas country held several rallies since the October 26 election, in which the ruling Georgian Dream reached a fourth term.

Leaders of three of the four opposition parties that won seats called for protests every day to prevent a new session of parliament from opening in November.

Georgian opponents Dream considered the party pro-Russian and said their continued power would destroy the former Soviet republic's chances of joining the European Union.

Hundreds of protesters set up tents and occupied the main road in Tbilisi for two consecutive nights until they were disbanded on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said protesters were blocking traffic illegally and urging them to leave the area. The statement did not mention any arrests.

The Coalition for Change, one of the four opposition groups, said several of its members had been arrested and others were injured.

An Mtavari Arkhi cameraman, the opposition television channel, was also detained.

The election commission on Saturday last week officially confirmed Georgia's Dream victory with 54 percent of the vote, although two polls in the US assigned by the opposition said the results were statistically impossible.

President Salome Zourabichvili, a loyal critic of Georgian Dream, filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court against the result, Interpress reported.