Tbilisi protests: Georgian police use cannons to scatter crowd outside parliament

After issuing a 30-minute ultimatum before dawn, Georgian police used water cannons to disperse protesters near parliament and detained several activists, hours after thousands assembled in the capital demanding electoral reforms.

Citing an Interior Ministry statement, RFE/RL reports that 28 protesters were detained for "disobedience to police and hooliganism." Earlier reports said two members of the opposition United National Movement, Ako Minashvili and Gia Tevdoradze, were among those detained.

The Health Ministry said four people were injured, three of whom remain hospitalized. Local media report that a journalist from the Mtavari Alkhi TV channel, Vasil Dabrundashvili, was among the injured.

Police now control the entrances to parliament, while dozens of demonstrators remain at the site, saying that their goal is to prevent lawmakers from entering the building.

The leader of the opposition New Georgia party, Giorgi Vashadze, said in a televised interview on November 26 that the ruling Georgian Dream party "is capable of holding a parliamentary session only by using the police."

"If the police cordon gives us a chance, we will enter parliament," Vashadze said.

Protesters gathered the previous day after the ruling Georgian Dream party refused to change the electoral system from a mixed to a proportional one beginning next year.

Supporters of about 20 opposition groups marched from Tbilisi's Republic Square to parliament, blocking traffic in Rustaveli Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare.

The protesters called on the government to step down and for early elections to be held, and vowed to prevent lawmakers from entering parliament, where a plenary session was scheduled for November 26.

On November 25, the ruling party's secretary-general, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, said after a party meeting that "the issue is closed and there will be no changes in the electoral system."

The status quo, according to the opposition, benefits the Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012.

The matter has been a hot topic for weeks after a constitutional amendment on the transition to a proportional electoral system was rejected by parliament on November 14.

The reform was one of the demands of thousands of demonstrators who rallied for weeks in Tbilisi in June and July and then again in recent weeks.