Two members of opera singer’s opposition party detained

Paata Burchuladze during Independence Day celebrations, May 26. (Facebook.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Sunday night, police in Georgia detained two members of a newly formed opposition party led by the opera singer Paata Burchuladze.

The two members of State for People were detained outside the party office in Temka, a northern district of Tbilisi.

“My colleagues [the two arrested] were yesterday under surveillance for the whole day. At night, when they left the office, the police started to search their vehicles. One of the persons sitting in the car protested loudly, after which the police told them to leave the car. This person and the person who came to help were later arrested,” a spokesperson for party said.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement that the men were detained for insulting police officers following an alcohol test and disobeying the police’s ‘legitimate demands’.

Paata Burchuladze, a famous Georgian operatic bass, recently entered politics forming his political movement, State for People. In June, Burchuladze and Bidzina Ivanishvili were involved in a row, accusing each other of lying about whether Burchuladze was offered by Georgian Dream to be nominated as a candidate for president before the election in 2013.

In May, Burchuladze held a political rally in Tbilisi, where he introduced the party’s leading figures. Even though he is without any significant political experience, the singer is believed to have a real chance of entering parliament after the election on 8 October. According to recent opinion polls, many Georgians are disappointed with the current politicians.