Georgia protesters demand new elections

MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of protesters descended on Georgia's Parliament on Friday demanding new elections in the largest popular movement since the 2003 Rose Revolution swept President Mikheil Saakashvili to power with promises of democratic transformation.

In a scene that in its sheer numbers bore a remarkable resemblance to the bloodless uprising that toppled the former government of Eduard Shevardnadze four years earlier, demonstrators filled the square outside Parliament in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi calling for the government to release "political" prisoners and hold elections in the spring.

"Misha, you are falling," a group of young activists shouted, referring to Saakashvili, who was at a meeting outside the capital.

"I was here in 2003, but now I have a feeling of civil protest towards what's going on in the country: unfair courts and the tendencies of a police state," protester Ramaz Margishvili said. "We want to end revolution and start developing in a normal way."

Opposition leaders are angry about a decision to delay parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for April, to October so they coincide with a stepped-up presidential election. The opposition hopes to capitalize on rising public dissatisfaction with Saakashvili's party, which dominates Parliament.

"The opposition believes this is the only appropriate solution for the many problems which the country is facing, since Saakashvili and the system are not able to deal with the challenges they face," David Usupashvili, chairman of the opposition Republican Party, said in a telephone interview from the square.

"The term of the elections were changed by Saakashvili in order to ensure his own political success, and nothing else," he said. "People are ready to stand here until the government hears us."

A coalition of 10 opposition parties was overseeing the protest, but thousands of citizens who joined in, many from outlying provinces, expressed disappointment that the new government has not improved life quickly enough for many Georgians despite its economic reforms and crackdown on corruption.

Food prices have doubled in the past few months, and unemployment remains high, despite substantial economic growth.