Georgia’s ruling party has opened the first session of parliament after disputed elections and a boycott by the opposition.
Tensions escalated after the governing Georgian Dream party was re-elected in the October 26 elections with almost 54 percent of the vote, according to official results.
Pro-Western opposition parties called the results “illegitimate” and refused to take their seats in the new parliament.
On Monday, Georgian Dream politicians entered parliament and opened the new legislative session with no opposition lawmakers present.
Outside the parliament building, protesters who had pitched tents since Sunday night shouted “Russians” and “slaves” at arriving deputies.
Among the deputies who entered parliament was Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister and the founder of the ruling party.
Ivanishvili is also widely regarded as the country’s most powerful man.
One protester on Sunday night told the Reuters news agency that the ruling party’s success was an existential crisis.
“Our country is on the verge of collapsing so we really want to defend it because we really love our country,” she said.
Referring to Ivanishvili, she added: “There is no other way, and we will not let the oligarch steal our present and our future as well.”
‘Election fraud’
Since the outbreak of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the traditionally pro-Western country has moved closer to Russia.
This year, relations with Western countries have also soured under the Georgian Dream party, which has been in power for more than a decade. It has pushed through laws against “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights that the United States and European Union have described as Russian-inspired.
Pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili, who is also at odds with the ruling party, has filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to annul the election results.
Zurabishvili has accused Russia of voting interference, a claim Moscow has denied.
The president wrote on X that Monday’s plenary session was “unconstitutional”, saying “massive electoral fraud has undermined its legitimacy”.
“Georgian Dream slaves are killing our constitution and making a mockery of our parliament,” she added.
Constitutional law expert Vakhushti Menabde told the AFP news agency that the “new parliament cannot convene until the Constitutional Court delivers its ruling on Zurabishvili’s lawsuit.”
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Georgian elections “will have to be investigated” and announced that Brussels was sending a mission to Tbilisi.
Georgian Dream has denied the electoral fraud allegations.