Protesters spent the night near the building of the Georgian parliament, whose legitimacy they do not recognize

Opposition protesters spent the night near the legislative building before the first session of the new parliament.

According to Echo of theCaucasus, the protesters arrived in a march to Rustaveli Avenue on Friday evening and set up tents there, bringing generators. The police did not interfere with them, and no incidents were reported during the night.

In the morning, the Georgian Interior Ministry announced the detention of one of the protesters for allegedly attacking a police officer. Additional barriers were set up at the entrances to the parliament.

The evening march and overnight stay in front of the parliament were the first steps of a rally demanding new elections, which the opposition called for Monday. Also on Sunday, the participants of the women's march brought "traveling suitcases" to the residence of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream ruling party.

In general, the Georgian opposition plans to ignore the first meeting and further work of the 11th convocation of the parliament, not recognizing the election results.

The Central Election Commission of Georgia said that after counting 97% of the votes, the largest number of votes was received by the Russian-oriented Georgian Dream party. The opposition Coalition for Change garnered 10.8%, and the Unity National Movement - 10.07%. The rest of the votes were distributed among smaller opposition parties. However, the leader of former President Mikheil Saakashvili 's Unity-National Movement party, Tina Bokuchava, had previously stated that her political force would not recognize the election results. The leader of the Coalition for Change, Nika Gvaramia, also said that his party would not recognize the election results and accused the ruling party of trying to usurp power. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili also did not recognize the parliamentary elections and called for street protests.

On October 26, police opened a criminal case over the alleged mass ballot box stuffing at polling station #69 in Marneuli district. This was announced at a briefing by the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia , Giorgi Kalandarishvili.

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