Georgia Casts Votes a Day After Former President's Arrest
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As Georgians vote in crucial municipal elections a day after former President Mikheil Saakashvili's arrest.
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Georgia's President Salome Zurabishvili (center left) casts her ballot at a polling station during national municipal elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, October 2, 2021 (AP)
Georgians were voting Saturday in crucial municipal elections, a day after the arrest of former President Mikheil Saakashvili. The former president is a prominent dissident figure in Georgia, and he was arrested upon his return from exile.
The dissident president's arrest deepened an already existing political crisis in the Caucasus nation. It also increased the importance of Saturday's municipal elections, which constitute a test for the decreasingly unpopular Georgian Dream party.
"I want to ask you all to go to the elections so that not a single vote is lost," he wrote on Twitter Saturday, posting a picture of a letter to supporters from prison.
Saakashvili has denied any wrongdoings and denounced his 6-year sentence, calling it "politically motivated." After his arrest, he went on hunger strike, as per Nino Lomjaria, Georgia's rights ombudsperson.
In a Facebook video published Friday, ahead of his arrest, Saakashvili called on his supporters to gather in one of Tbilisi's main streets on Sunday.
Earlier that day, he announced his return to Georgia, from which he left to Ukraine after his term ended in 2013.
Mikheil Saakashvili was very popular in Georgia during his presidency that lasted from 2003 to 2013; however, he was also heavily criticized, mainly due to his pro-Western views. He was later arrested in 2018 over a conviction in absentia on abuse of office charges.
He resided in the United States for a while and then started a turbulent new political life in Ukraine. He had been warned of his prosecution by the Georgian government and that he would be sentenced to 6 years in prison upon his return from Ukraine.
Georgia has been undergoing a political crisis since last year, as the opposition denounced the elections as fraudulent after the ruling party won by a small margin.
An inter-party agreement the European Union brokered in May stipulated that the Georgian Dream party holds snap parliamentary elections if it wins less than 43% in Saturday's municipal vote.
The Georgian Dream party withdrew from the agreement in July, which resulted in protests from the opposition and Tbilisi's western allies.
The Georgian municipal elections are being closely monitored both inside and outside the country over any signs of the ruling party "backsliding on democracy."
The Georgian Dream party - founded by Georgia's richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, which has been in power since 2012 - is facing accusations of using criminal prosecutions to silence dissidents and journalists.
