On November 2, the “Opposition Coalition of Georgia” (OCG), which includes former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party, held a rally in the Black Sea coastal city of Batumi, where its leaders announced the beginning of a mass protest movement. Demonstrators would demand the appointment of early parliamentary elections and the release from prison of the country’s third president (Batumelebi, November 2). Saakashvili was imprisoned on October 1, after he returned to Georgia from nearly decade-long exile in Ukraine. Since his arrest and detention, he has been on a hunger strike (see EDM, October 27).
Georgian Opposition Rejects Official Results of October Local Elections – Jamestown
