The European Union called on authorities in Georgia to ensure the right to protest, after the government accused opposition movements of trying to launch a coup during controversial elections.
"We urge calm and restraint in the post-election period and call on the authorities to uphold citizens' rights to freedom of assembly and expression," the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said in a joint statement.
Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze vowed opposition arrests Sunday after police used force against protesters who tried to enter the presidential palace in what he termed was a coup bid during the municipal elections.
"We call on every side to refrain from violence," the EU commissioners said.
Saturday's polls were the ruling populist Georgian Dream party's first electoral test since a disputed parliamentary vote a year ago plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted Brussels to effectively freeze the EU-candidate country's accession bid.
The central election commission said Georgian Dream had secured municipal council majorities in every municipality and that its candidates scored landslide wins in mayoral races in all cities. Most opposition parties had boycotted the vote.
"Months of raids on independent media, the passing of laws targeting civil society, the jailing of opponents and activists or amendments to the electoral code favouring the ruling party, drastically reduced the possibility of having competitive elections," the EU statement said.
It said the refusal to allow in international monitors had "undermined the transparency of the electoral process and prevented credible international monitoring".
Electoral test
Saturday's local polls were the ruling populist Georgian Dream party's first electoral test since a disputed parliamentary vote a year ago plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted Brussels to effectively freeze the EU-candidate country's accession bid.
Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators flooded Tbilisi's Freedom Square after the opposition urged a "last-chance" election-day protest to save democracy.
A group of protesters later tried to enter the presidential palace, prompting riot police to use tear gas and water cannon.
On Sunday evening, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside parliament, blocking traffic on Tbilisi's main avenue and vowing to keep protesting until Georgian Dream leaves power.
"Yesterday we were massive, today we are thinner, but we will win in the end and this illegitimate government will be out," said one demonstrator, Nato Tsomaia, 23.
'Attempted coup'
The interior ministry said on Saturday it had opened an investigation into "calls to violently alter Georgia's constitutional order or overthrow state authority" and arrested five protest leaders who face up to nine years in prison.
Among those arrested was a world-renowned opera singer and activist, Paata Burchuladze, who read out at the rally a declaration claiming "power returns to the people" and branding the government "illegitimate".
Polls close in Georgia’s election that could take it toward the EU or into Russia’s orbit
"Several people have already been arrested – first and foremost the organisers of the attempted overthrow," Prime Minister Kobakhidze told journalists.
"No one will go unpunished... many more must expect sentences for the violence they carried out against the state and law-enforcement."
On Sunday evening, Georgia's State Security Service (SSS) said it had found a large cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives in a forest hideout near Tbilisi.
It alleged the materiel was intended for "subversive acts" on election day alongside organised street violence and an attempt to seize the presidential palace.
The SSS said a Georgian national procured the weapons on instructions from a Georgian man fighting with Ukrainian forces.
(with newswires)
