Georgian opposition to boycott parliament
TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia's main opposition coalition vowed yesterday to boycott the nation's new parliament and hold street protests against an election it says was rigged to hand victory to President Mikheil Saakashvili's party.
The vote on Wednesday in Georgia, a former Soviet state on an important transit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea, was viewed as a test for Saakashvili's democratic credentials as he seeks to take his country into NATO.
His allies in the United States and the European Union broadly welcomed the election, despite a report from Europe's main vote-monitoring body that said it only partly lived up to Georgia's democratic commitments.
"The opposition coalition refuses to work in the new parliament and will stay with its own people," opposition coalition leader Levan Gachechiladze said.
With all the votes counted, Saakashvili's United National Movement party was expected to have two-thirds of the seats in parliament, enough for a constitutional majority. The main opposition coalition finished a distant second.
Georgia's foreign minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, meeting EU officials in Brussels, acknowledged that the vote had not been perfect. But she said the government did all it could to make the elections free and fair.
