Georgians will vote today in local elections that the opposition intends to use to mobilize the population to take to the streets, at the risk of facing a new wave of violence and arrests, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze promised a harsh response from the police in case of unrest in the country and thwarting the "revolutionary" goals of those calling for demonstrations.
The local elections are boycotted by several opposition parties, including "Unity - National Movement" (END) of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who himself called on his supporters to take to the streets.
But for the ruling Georgian Dream party, controlled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the vote is the first electoral test after the political crisis that began with the October 2024 parliamentary elections, which the party won.
Those elections, the results of which were considered fraudulent, were followed by months of protests that were brutally suppressed.
About 60 people - opposition leaders, journalists and ordinary activists - were arrested in the past year, NGOs said.
According to these organizations and much of the opposition, today's elections mean much more than electing new local authorities.
Some, like Mikheil Saakashvili, see them as a "last chance" to save democracy in the Caucasian country, located between Russia and Turkey, whose government is moving closer to Moscow with a series of repressive laws, AFP notes.
"Let's take to the streets on October 4 and stand firm until the end. Freedom now or never," Saakashvili wrote on "Facebook" publication on Thursday.
Without a show of force against the government, "complete despair will set in and the West will eventually abandon us", the 57-year-old former president added.
Opera singer Pata Burchuladze, a symbol of mobilized civil society, called for a civic "people's rally" in front of parliament in Tbilisi at 12 noon.
"Of course, the revolution announced by Pata Burchuladze will fail," the Georgian prime minister responded, threatening the participants that "they will end up behind bars.".