TBILISI: Georgians voted in municipal elections Saturday, a day after the dramatic arrest of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who called from custody for the country’s peaceful transition to a genuine democracy”.

The detention on Friday of Georgia’s foremost opposition figure upon his return from exile raised the stakes in the polls seen as a key test for the increasingly unpopular Georgian Dream ruling party.

In comments to AFP through a representative, who visited him in prison on Saturday, Saakashvili said “Georgia needs a peaceful transition towards a genuine democracy where political opponents are not locked up on falsified charges or forced into exile.”

“I am not seeking any political office, I am just determined to fight to the end against the oligarchic rule which kills Georgian democracy,” he said.

He was referring to the former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a powerful oligarch and ruling party founder who is widely believed to be calling the shots in Georgia despite holding no political office.

Founder of Georgia’s main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM) and president between 2003-2013, Saakashvili, 53, said Friday he had secretly returned from Ukraine, where he heads a Ukrainian government agency steering reforms.

The flamboyant pro-Western reformer, who in 2003 led the peaceful “Rose Revolution” that ousted Communist-era elites, was detained shortly afterwards over a 2018 conviction in absentia on abuse of office charges.

He has denied any wrongdoing, denounced his sentence of six years in jail as politically motivated, and following his arrest went on hunger strike, Georgia’s rights ombudsperson said.

His jailing will almost certainly spark upheaval in the small ex-Soviet nation which has been plagued for years by political instability.