Bidzina Ivanishvili, the head of Georgia's ruling party and its richest citizen, said on Monday he was quitting politics, two months after a parliamentary election his opponents allege was rigged, Reuters reported.

Democrat Raphael Warnock ousted an incumbent Republican Wednesday in the first of two critical runoff elections in Georgia that will decide control of the US Senate at the outset of Joe Biden's presidency, networks projected.

Thousands of protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Saturday to back opposition calls for a re-run of the parliamentary election, held on 31 October, news wires reported. The opposition accuses the ruling Georgian Dream party and its supporters of vote buying, making threats against voters and observers, and of violations during the count. Eight opposition parties including the UNM have said they would boycott parliament.

Police in Georgian capital Tbilisi fired water cannon and tear gas against hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Sunday to support a call by opposition parties for a rerun of parliamentary elections, held on 31 October, Reuters reported. The opposition is demanding the resignation of the CEC chief Tamar Zhvania, saying the elections were rigged.

Georgia faces political crisis after the opposition refused to recognise the results of parliamentary elections, held on Saturday, news wires reported. According to the Central Election Commission, the ruling Georgian Dream party was well out in front with 48.1%t after the votes at nearly all of the polling stations were counted. The largest opposition party, the United National Movement, was in second place on 27.1%.

Greece will take over from Georgia today the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for the next six months. The handover ceremony will take place on line, due to conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United States and European Union expressed solidarity on Monday with Georgia’s anti-government protesters who took to the streets after the ruling party backtracked on promises of electoral reforms, news wires reported. In the biggest anti-government protest in years, more than 20,000 demonstrators rallied on Sunday outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi urging the government to resign and calling for new legislative elections.

Thousands of people gathered in the center of Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday for a protest against the government and ruling Georgian Dream Party, three months after the brutal dispersal of an anti-Kremlin demonstration.

The European Union stated on 3 July that it considers the Russian decision to ban flights to Georgia as of 8 July “unjustified and disproportionate”. Bloc's statement comes a week President Vladimir Putin‘s temporary suspended Georgian airlines from flying to Russia amid rising tensions between the two nations.

The leader of Georgia's ruling party says the ex-Soviet nation will hold the next parliamentary election based entirely on a proportionate system, fulfilling a key demand of anti-government protesters, news wires reported. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party, on Monday announced a "large-scale political reform". There will also be no threshold for parties to enter parliament, he said.