Georgia to go to polls in January

Georgia’s highest court today invalidated the fraud-tainted parliamentary vote that sparked the peaceful removal of President Eduard Shevardnadze, leaving the old parliament in place until new elections.

Hours later, members of the legislature elected in 1999 gathered in the parliament building, the epicentre of the country’s recent protests, and overwhelmingly decided that early presidential elections would be held on January 4.

“We should stand side by side independent of nationalities, independent of political interests,” parliamentary speaker and interim President Nino Budrzhanadze told the legislators. “Today we are starting a new era.”

A vase of red roses stood on the speaker’s lectern, a reminder of the flowers protesters carried in what many have called Georgia’s “velvet revolution” or “rose revolution.”

Before the parliament convened, another opposition leader and likely successor to Shevardnadze, Mikhail Saakashvili, strongly urged the legislators to set the election date.

“If this session doesn’t set new elections, Georgia will find itself in a state of civil war,” he said in a televised statement.

Saakashvili previously has warned that there remained a potential for violence. He did not elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be aimed at Adzharia, an autonomous province in southwestern Georgia on the Black Sea led by his opponent, Aslan Abashidze.

Abashidze said yesterday that Adzharia was breaking off relations with the transitional powers in the capital, Tbilisi, until a new president was elected.

Train and air service were cut and regional security forces sealed the borders with the rest of the country. Abashidze said his region would boycott the parliament.

“Unfortunately, the leaders of this opposition movement do not conceal their aggressive attitude to everything, particularly Adzharia,” Abashidze told local television. “The only correct course of action is what we are doing now. The people should stand up for their interests.”

Shevardnadze, meanwhile, said he intended to remain in Georgia. He denied persistent reports that he would go into exile in Germany, where he is widely respected for his help as Soviet foreign minister in reunifying the country.

“Although I love Germany very much, my homeland is Georgia and I owe it to her to stay here,” Shevardnadze told the German TV station ZDF.

Shevardnadze resigned on Sunday after a decade of mounting discontent and three weeks of protests over November 2 parliamentary elections his critics said exemplified the corruption that has plagued the former Soviet republic during his reign.