Police have detained yet another member of the Shecvale (change) youth movement, Tite Gedenidze, in front of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party office earlier today.
Gedenidze is the fourth young activist, who has been detained at the GD headquarter. The three other detainees are Nika Parulava, Beka Papashvili and Otar Shengelia.
The demonstrators wanted to enter the GD office, but police blocked the way, which became the reason for a confrontation between them.
The members of the movement had held the demonstration at the ruling party headquarter while Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the party was meeting with the ambassadors of the European Union countries.Photo: Georgian Dream press office
Opposition and civic activists, who have been protesting the rejection of the election bill since November 14, are holding demonstrations at various locations since then.
The ruling party expressed their willingness to change the current mixed electoral system to fully proportional during June protests in Tbilisi to meet one of their three demands.
However, at a plenary session on November 14, the bill was rejected as it could not receive enough support from the MPs.
While all of the opposition MPs voted in favour, 40 ruling party MPs either voted against or abstained, leading to protest rallies in front of the parliament.
Police dispersed a rally on November 18 with the use of water cannons as demonstrators blocked the entrances of the parliament building, preventing MPs from entering the building.
The opposition has announced that the parliament will be blocked again on November 26, “following a large-scale rally on November 25.”