Georgia rally pressures president
More than 10,000 opponents of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, are rallying in the country's capital in an attempt to put pressure on his government after its military defeat by Russia in August.
Organisers said that the rally, held on the anniversary of a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators last year, would be the first of many to demand early elections.
Levan Gachechiladze, a long-time politician and opposition leader, said at the start of the rally: "We are starting a new wave of protests.
"Our main demand is free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections next spring."
Many at the rally wore white scarves and armbands as they waved opposition flags in front of the Georgian parliament building, using the colour and symbols of last year's violently dispersed anti-government protests.
'No justice'
Valery Kutsia, a retired policeman at the rally, said:"I'm here to protest because there is no justice in Georgia. Human rights are not respected. We must have early elections."
One banner read "Stop Russia, Stop Misha", reflecting the protesters' opposition to both Russia and Saakashvili, who has the nickname Misha.
Though Saakashvili was praised in the West when he came to power in a non-violent "Rose Revolution", he has been criticised since the August war for acting recklessly.
Opponents also accuse him of persecuting opposition activists, limiting media freedoms and ignoring the poor in his drive to implement economic reforms.
Dato Darchiashvili, a member of parliament from Saakashvilis' party, told Al Jazeera the media restrictions had been carried out last year to prevent the country being destabilised.
Matthew Collins, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tblisi, the Georgian capital, said the president has now "learned his lessons and promised new democratic reforms".
"But Georgia's radical opposition parties who have gathered outside parliament have ignored his calls for post-war unity. They simply want him to go," he said.
On the eve of Friday's demonstration, a coalition of opposition parties distributed a pamphlet laying out plans for a number of rallies and other actions designed to pressure the government into calling elections by next spring.
If Saakashvili has not called elections by April 9, the anniversary of a 1989 Soviet crackdown on protesters that left 20 dead, the opposition will begin a "round the-clock" protest rally, it said.
ivided nation
In August, Russian forces moved into the country to counter a Georgian military attempt to retake the separatist region of South Ossetia.
Russia's military defeated Georgian forces, occupied parts of the country and bombed targets across Georgia, badly damaging the country's infrastructure.
Under a European Union-brokered ceasefire, Russian forces later withdrew to South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia.
Analysts say the protest will be a first sign of whether the opposition can capitalise on bitterness over the war.
Divided and lacking a charismatic leader, Georgia's opposition has repeatedly failed to mount a serious challenge since Saakashvili came to power in 2003.
Neither the leading opposition group in parliament, the Christian Democrats, nor Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker and a key Saakashvili opponent, said they would join the rally.
Tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets last year in anti-government protests, forcing Saakashvili to call a snap presidential poll after riot police dispersed demonstrators.
Saakashvili won January's poll in a single round of voting and his United National Movement party swept parliamentary elections a few months later.
Georgian Democracy under attack
no.1 will have to start another crackdown on all those who think different, and to think that there are people in the white house who support this
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