Head of Elections Headquarters of ruling Georgian Dream party, former parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has made a statement regarding last night's clashes between Georgian Dream and the United National Movement (UNM) supporters in Marneuli and said that he is sure 'we will see people behind bars today or tomorrow'.
Kobakhidze stated that opposition supporters organised provocations against supporters of the Georgian Dream party both in Bolnisi and Marneuli. He said that UNM supporters swore at the supporters of the Georgian Dream.
We have managed to prevent incidents many times and I can name the facts. For example, four supporters of Nika Melia [one of the leaders of the UNM] came to Levan Kobiashvili's [Georgian Dream's majoritarian candidate for Gldani] meeting wearing white shirts and provoked our activists. They wore white shirts specially the traces of this provocation to be visible. It was because our activists were strongly warned not to follow even the most severe provocation that no incident occurred", Kobakhidze said.
Kobakhidze said that provocations will intensify with the approach of the elections.
He called on the 'radical, criminal opposition' to refrain from provocations.
What happened this morning was more than a provocation - a member of the Marneuli District Election Commission was hit by a car from behind and as soon as he got out of the car, he was attacked by a member of the radical, criminal opposition. His facial bones have broken in the accident", he said.
Kobakhidze also called on law enforcement agencies to punish provocateurs of the accidents.