Fresh protests in Georgia capital
Story from BBC NEWS:
europe/7076398.stm
Published: 2007/11/03 12:19:07 GMT
Thousands of protesters are on the streets of Georgia for a second day
to demand the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Many of the protesters had camped overnight outside the parliament
building in the capital, Tbilisi.
The crowd has swelled during the day, but has not yet matched the
50,000-strong crowd seen on Friday.
The protesters want an early election, accusing the president of
leading a corrupt, authoritarian government.
The pro-Western Mr Saakashvili came to power in January 2004 following
the peaceful "Rose revolution", which toppled President Eduard
Shevardnadze.
The country is still struggling to recover from years of post-Soviet
economic decay, instability and civil war.
The president remains popular among much of the population, reports the
BBC’s Matthew Collin in Tbilisi – but the opposition is also hoping to
capitalise on discontent with widespread poverty.
"Saakashvili has said absolutely nothing. How can he stay silent when
tens of thousands of people are on the streets? It shows he thinks
nothing of us," 23-year-old Levan Kaprindashvili told AFP news agency.
‘Political blackmail’
The country’s previously weak and divided opposition parties formed a
united front last month, and began a nationwide protest campaign
against the Georgian leader.
The government has accused the opposition of using the protest as a
form of blackmail.
Mr Saakashvili said on Thursday that Georgia was a failed state before
he came to power but had now become a model of democratic development
and economic reform.
He has suggested minor changes to the electoral process to ensure more
opposition representation in parliament – but the opposition says this
is not enough.