TBILISI, DFWatch – The Georgian government is to start providing police security during opposition campaign events.

The opposition Georgian Dream was Thursday driven out of the village Karaleti by a stone-throwing crowd. 13 people were hospitalised, and six have been arrested.

On June 26, a street fight injured several people while Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili was nearby at a rally in Mereti, also in the Gori region.

Head of the Saakashvili government’s interagency commission working on providing fair elecions, Giga Bokeria, says police will attend election rallies from now on, “where there may be a danger”. The threat level will be assessed by information exchange among political forces, Mr Bokeria informed.

“There will be a strict attitude towards political forces to avoid violence during the election campaign,” he said.

The opposition says the violence has been initiated by a group of vigilantes headed by a member of parliament for Saakashvili’s ruling party, one Mr Basishvili. This is the same group of vigilantes, locally known as sonderbrigades, that posed in police uniforms during the May 26, 2011, violence that left at least four dead.