Nodar Burdiladze at a UNM rally in Tbilisi in 2017. (Facebook.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–A regional official in the United Opposition is in a critical condition after being stabbed outside his house, five days ahead of the runoff election for president.

Two persons implicated in the murder attempt are ‘associated with Georgian Dream’, the opposition claims.

Georgian Dream and the authorities vehemently denied having any ties with the assailants, arguing that opposition has been deliberately capitalizing on the incident ahead of the crucial elections.

Nodar Burdiladze, the head of the electoral office in Oni, sustained at least three wounds to his chest, reportedly from a knife, at about 11:30pm on Wednesday. Oni is a town and a the administrative center of Oni district in the Racha region of Georgia.

After the attack, Burdiladze sat down in his car and tried to get to drive to the hospital without assistance but soon he lost consciousness and his car crashed. But after a few minutes he regained consciousness and walked to the hospital by himself.

After surgery in Oni, he was brought to a hospital in Tbilisi where he is currently in a critical condition, doctors say.

The two persons who wounded Burdiladze were associated with Georgian Dream, Nika Melia, the chair at United National Movement, claimed at a press conference on Thursday, connecting the crime to the upcoming elections.

“The government’s policy of violence, which is being carried out through high-ranking police officers, criminals and reckless Georgian Dream activists, is getting more and more severe forms,” Nika Melia said.

Georgian Dream called the accusations false and irresponsible.

The incident started as a brawl between Burdiladze and two other men, which have no connection to Georgian Dream, head of the GD faction of in parliament Mamuka Mdinaradze said on Thursday.

“While in the past the United National Movement’s ‘business card’ was dictatorship, brutality and evil, now when they are in the opposition, their calling card became lies,” Mdinaradze said.

Police arrested one individual  on Thursday, on suspicion of murder attempt.