TBILISI: Around 45,000 opposition supporters rallied Sunday in ex-Soviet Georgia, vowing permanent protests until a snap vote is called as the opposition accused the ruling party of rigging tightly contested parliamentary elections.
The ruling Georgian Dream party led by billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili - which won the October 31 polls with a two-percent margin - has flatly denied the accusations of electoral fraud.
But all of Georgia's opposition parties have refused to enter the new parliament, sparking fears of another political crisis in the Caucasus nation where elections are often followed by accusations of fraud and mass demonstrations.
The main thoroughfare of the capital Tbilisi turned into a sea of Georgia's red-and-white five-cross flags as protesters gathered outside parliament, many wearing masks.
"What Georgian Dream did during the elections amounts to a coup, we will force them to call new polls," said one of the demonstrators, 33-year-old pharmacist Theona Lanchava.
Pensioner Givi Baramidze, 70, said the elections were "the last straw" for Georgian Dream and it was time "to sweep them out".
Later in the evening, protesters marched several kilometres across the city towards the central election commission premises, threatening to blockade the building's entrances.
In an unprecedented show of unity before the vote, the country's main opposition force, exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), agreed with smaller opposition groups to form a coalition government if elected.
"We demand the replacement of the totally discredited electoral administration and the holding of a fresh vote," one of the UNM's leaders, Salome Samadashvili, told AFP on Sunday.
"Our protests will be permanent and will encompass all of Georgia," another UNM leader, Nika Melia, told the rally.
Several thousand opposition supporters also rallied in the Black Sea city of Batumi to call for a new vote.
Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has said the elections marked an "important milestone in Georgia's democratic development" and criticised the opposition for staging mass rallies during the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will not allow some power-thirsty politicians who pursue their narrow political interests to destroy the country," he said in a statement ahead of Sunday's rally.
Gakharia, who has tested positive for the virus, has been in self-isolation for a week and announced a night curfew starting Monday.
Georgia has seen a rapid daily increase in new virus cases after it lifted a lockdown aimed at containing the spread of the disease in September. International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the vote was "far from flawless" but that "fundamental freedoms were respected".
Local election observers reported numerous cases of ballot stuffing, multiple voting and doctoring of results.
"The Georgian government has failed to meet democratic standards during the elections," 27 rights groups said in a joint statement.
The United States and European Union have called for a "credible and inclusive legal process for remedying substantiated electoral violations."
The electoral commission has yet to formalise early results that showed Georgian Dream had won 48 percent of the proportional vote, against 46 percent for opposition parties.
The proportional vote decides 120 of the 150 seats in the legislature.
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