TBILISI — Georgian police erected steel fences around the parliament and government buildings on Thursday to prevent dozens of opposition activists from picketing the area in a dispute over electoral reform. The activists have been protesting for two weeks to demand that a planned reform of the election system be implemented now and not delayed until 2024. Bidzina Ivanishivili is the leader of the ruling party leader, a former prime minister and also Georgia’s richest man. Police have twice used water cannon this month to scatter the protesters outside parliament and have arrested dozens. Almost half of Georgia’s current lawmakers were elected not from party lists but in single-mandate constituencies, mostly representing the ruling party, in power since 2012.

Source: National Post November 28, 2019 09:11 UTC