Students at Batumi’s Shota Rustaveli University stage sit-in against fraudulent election

A new student movement at Batumi’s Shota Rustaveli University has organised a sit-in in protest against the rigging of Georgia’s parliamentary elections.

The movement, named Gushagebi (‘guards’), on Thursday accused the acting rector and other members of the administration of being involved in pre-election agitation, as well as aiding in electoral fraud for the ruling Georgian Dream party.

‘I appeal to all students who are not standing with us today to join us in this great struggle’, said a member of Gushagebi, Mate Tsenteradze. ‘[We] are starting today from the university, and in the future we will continue in the streets of the city, and we will be everywhere where the fate of Georgia is decided’.

Batumelebi, a local media outlet, reported that the students demand a redo of the parliamentary elections.

The university administration did not look kindly at the protesters. Levan Jakeli, dean of the university’s faculty of law, threatened to file a complaint against the students.

Student movements in Georgia express support for Gushagebi 

A group of students spent the night at the university, where, according to Batumelebi, the power and heating was cut off for some time. They were later provided with blankets by people gathered outside.

They announced a rally on Friday at 18:00 in front of the university calling not only students, but also older people to join them as well.

‘Today, we, the striking students, are awaiting our parents’ generation, our grandparents’ generation, to come to us and protest together against the rigged elections and the future that was taken from us, in which [founder of Georgian Dream party] Bidzina Ivanishvili made the main contribution’, Tsenteradze told Batumelebi.

Student movements of at least four universities across the country expressed their solidarity with the Batumi students.

The student movement of Ilia State University announced on Thursday that they support Gushagebi and ‘condemned the participation of each person in the election fraud process’.

On Friday, according to the local media, some students from Ilia State University marched through the corridors and auditoriums at the university chanting ‘get out, get out’ against the government and the ruling party. 

The student movement of GIPA expressed solidarity with Gushagebi, and at the same time announced that on Sunday at 18:00, students and academic staff will gather at the GIPA campus to protest against the election results.

Student movements at Tbilisi State Medical University and the Caucasus University have also issued statements of support

On Friday, pro-government TV channel Imedi alleged that four of the demonstrators at Batumi’s Shota Rustaveli University were not students of the university, with three of them being members of opposition groups, and one of them being a student at Ilia State University.