Iran Press/ Asia: Saakashvili, who left Georgia in 2013 and was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2018, was arrested on Friday after he returned to Georgia and called on his supporters to vote for the opposition and stage a post-election street protest, Reuters reported.
Georgia's authorities had warned he would be arrested if he returned and President Salome Zourabichvili said that she would not pardon the 53-year-old after his arrest and accused him of deliberately trying to destabilise the country.
The elections, which include a vote for the mayor of capital Tbilisi, have taken on significance amid a months-long political crisis that erupted in the wake of last year's parliamentary election, which prompted the opposition to boycott the chamber.
The head of the main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM) that Saakashvili founded, was arrested in February and released in May amid a push by the European Union to broker a deal to ease the standoff between the government and the party.
That deal collapsed over the summer when the ruling Georgian Dream party withdrew.
The deal had said that Georgian Dream would need to call snap parliamentary elections if it failed to garner 43% of the vote at Saturday's local elections.
A recent poll showed popular support for Georgian Dream at 36%, below that threshold.
Though the deal has now unravelled, political analysts said the vote could trigger protests if the ruling party fails to reach the threshold outlined in the deal and declines to call snap parliamentary elections.
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