Protesters in Georgia have set up tents and sand bags to block a major intersection in the capital Tbilisi. The move came after the Central Election Commission (CEC) published the final results of October’s parliamentary elections, despite local observers documenting widespread electoral fraud by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

On Sunday evening, the opposition Coalition for Change group set up tents in Tbilisi’s central Vake district spending the night there to ‘reclaim the vote’ — to demand a redo of the 26 October parliamentary election.

The central intersection near Tbilisi State University connects traffic from Rustaveli Avenue through Melikishvili Street to Chavchavadze Avenue, with Varaziskhevi Street providing a vital connection to Rustaveli Avenue.

Organisers initially suggested the protest would last 24 hours. As sand bags were laid out around the encampment on Monday morning, Giorgi Vashadze, a leading member of the opposition Unity — National Movement group, called for greater mobilisation by 19:00, an hour before the protest was initially set to conclude, to announce their next steps for the demonstrations.

Soon after the gathering was announced, thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament marched to join them, with some staying overnight. Sunday evening’s demonstration outside parliament on Rustaveli Avenue saw leading local election observer groups sharing accounts of irregularities seen during the 26 October elections.

A few hundred protesters against Georgia’s rigged election have set up barricades and tents, blocking one of the main intersections in Tbilisi. They announced they will remain until 20:00 pic.twitter.com/aPZF9fL3kt

— OC Media (@OCMediaorg) November 18, 2024

By Monday morning, protesters had laid out sand bags around the encampment.

Some of these irregularities were highlighted in the latest investigative report by Nodar Meladze’s Saturday, a programme aired on TV channel Pirveli. The programme also accused the ruling party of using the State Security Service to vet and then install their supporters as supposedly ‘non-partisan’ election officials, and of blackmailing socially vulnerable people and persons with disabilities to vote for them. 

[Read more: Georgian Dream accused of using call centres to monitor and pressure voters] 

The official results of 26 October’s elections gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority in parliament, with 54% of the vote. This represented a large increase from the 48% the party received in 2020.

Over the weekend, demonstrations organised by Georgian emigrants also took place in several Western cities, including Frankfurt and New York. Protests also took place in Shota Rustaveli State University in Batumi, a coastal city on the Black Sea, where students continued their sit-in launched on 14 November. 

[Read more: Students at Batumi’s Shota Rustaveli University stage sit-in against fraudulent election] 

On Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze reiterated his party’s plan to convene the new parliament’s inaugural session on 25 November, which all four opposition groups who won seats have pledged to boycott.

On Sunday evening, the leader of the Strong Georgia opposition grouping, Mamuka Khazaradze, called on all opposition groups that surpassed the 5% threshold to form a ‘People’s Parliament’ and invite President Salome Zourabichvili to act as its ‘honorary chair’.

‘You are tochka ru!’

Protests on Sunday resumed after the CEC officially announced the final results of the contested parliamentary election the day prior. The commission awarded 89 seats to the ruling Georgian Dream party, 19 to the Coalition for Change, 16 to Unity — National Movement, 14 to Strong Georgia, and 12 seats to Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia.

Shortly before its chair, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, officially announced the results, opposition CEC member David Kirtadze splashed what appeared to have been black ink on him. 

‘You have taken away the future of our Georgia and our next generation, steering it towards Russia. I couldn’t even call you “Mr Chair”; you are “tochka ru” because the Georgian people will remember you as a black stain,’ Kirtadze said before throwing the paint.

Tochka (‘dot’) ru, or .ru, is Russia’s top-level domain. 

The attack on Kalandarishvili was met with cheers from protesters gathered outside the CEC and from some Georgians online who had been using a black circle on a white background to symbolise the visible ballot choices cast by Georgian voters on 26 October, highlighting a breach of voter secrecy.

The Interior Ministry said they had launched a criminal investigation into Kirtadze’s protest. 

While it remained unclear over the weekend whether Kirtadze would face criminal charges, police promptly detained three individuals protesting the CEC session that day. The detainees had begun marching along the adjacent Aghmashenebeli Avenue and made an unsuccessful attempt to block traffic. Among those detained were Vano Gomurashvili, a member of Coalition for Change, and the co-founder of the opposition-aligned TV channel Formula, Giorgi Liponava.

All three were released on Monday afternoon.

On 16 November, after the CEC’s announcement of the final election results, the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church published a congratulatory letter from Patriarch Ilia II to Georgian Dream, recognising their ‘victory by a large majority of votes’.

‘Although the opposition is disputing the election results and plans to continue its resistance, we express hope that both the government and the opposition will be able to use the coming years to the fullest for the advancement and prosperity of the country’, the Patriarch said in his statement.