The interior ministry said 32 of its staff were injured and “43 individuals were detained by law enforcement for disobeying lawful police orders and for petty hooliganism”.
Thousands rallied in the capital, Tbilisi, and cities across Georgia after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the decision yesterday.
The move comes amid a post-election crisis that has seen the president challenge the legitimacy of the newly elected parliament and government.
Last night and this morning, riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and deployed water cannons, beating peaceful protesters and journalists outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, an AFP reporter saw.
Two female politicians from the opposition Coalition for Change, Elene Khoshtaria and Nana Malashkhia, were reportedly injured during the protests.
Khoshtaria sustained a broken arm, while Malashkhia suffered a broken nose, the coalition said.
Georgia’s PEN centre said prominent poet Zviad Ratiani was among those arrested and demanded his immediate release.
The prime minister’s announcement came hours after the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of Georgia’s Oct 26 parliamentary elections, alleging “significant irregularities”.
The resolution called for new elections within a year under international supervision and for sanctions to be imposed on top Georgian officials, including Kobakhidze.
Accusing the European Parliament and “some European politicians” of “blackmail”, Kobakhidze said: “We have decided not to bring up the issue of joining the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028.”
But he pledged to continue implementing reforms, asserting: “By 2028, Georgia will be more prepared than any other candidate country to open accession talks with Brussels and become a member state in 2030.”
Opposition lawmakers are boycotting the new parliament, alleging fraud in the October elections, in which the ruling Georgian Dream party gained a new majority.
President Zurabishvili – at loggerheads with Georgian Dream – has declared the ballot “unconstitutional” and is seeking to annul the election results through the constitutional court.