Thousands of opposition supporters gathered today in front of the Parliament of Georgia in Tbilisi, and it is the second Monday in a row to protest the results of the parliamentary elections held on October 26, which they consider illegitimate and fake, with the help of Russia, and in favor of the ruling party - Georgian Dream.
Demonstrators waved Georgian and European Union flags, and are demanding new parliamentary elections - this time under international supervision - as well as an investigation into alleged election irregularities.
Opposition leaders say they will boycott the parliamentary session and hold regular demonstrations until their demands are met.
The protests came under the watchful eye of police to crack down on demonstrators, reflecting simmering political tensions in Georgia, a South Caucasus country and former Soviet republic of 3,7 million people that sits between Russia and Turkey.
The Central Election Commission announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party won about 54 percent of the vote. Its leaders reject the opposition's claims that the election results were falsified.
The country's president, Salome Zurabichvili, rejects the official results and believes that Georgia is a victim of Russian pressure in order not to join the European Union.
Zurabichvili, whose constitutional position is largely ceremonial, called on the US and the European Union to support the demonstrations.
Officials in Washington and Brussels have called for a full investigation into the election, and the Kremlin maintains that it did not interfere.
The State Prosecutor's Office of Georgia launched an investigation into the election, but the opposition claims that the investigation cannot be independent, as it is led by a state prosecutor appointed by the parliament, controlled by the Georgian Dream.
Georgia is a candidate for EU membership, but its status has been suspended because the ruling party, despite massive protests this summer, pushed through a foreign interference law that closely resembles Russia's law on foreign agents, aimed at curbing foreign funding of civil society organizations.
Georgian Dream has been in power since 2012, and the party was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a secretive billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.
The opposition accuses her of becoming authoritarian and oriented towards Moscow.
In 2008, Russia won a short war against Georgia, which attempted to militarily recover its two then de facto independent regions with a Russian population. After the victory in the war, Russia recognized the independence of those regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - and increased its military presence in them.
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