11 January 2008, 15:16
Georgia: Saakashvili to be inaugurated on January 20 or 21
Inauguration of Mikhail Saakashvili, the winner of the early presidential election in Georgia, will be held on January 20 or January 21. This was announced today to journalists by Nino Burdzhanadze, current acting President of Georgia.
She said that "plenty of foreign guests" are expected to the inauguration ceremony, the ITAR-TASS reports.
Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has informed that despite the statement of Levan Tarkhnishvili, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia, that there is no point of the second round of presidential election, such probability still remains. It can be judged by the persistence, with which the opposition of Georgia is stating mass violations in the course of the election and falsification of the totals of the voting on January 5.
We remind you that yesterday, on January 10, late at night, the CEC's Chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili informed the journalists that after the end of tabulation of ballot papers of all the voters who had taken part in the presidential election on January 5, the candidate for President Mikhail Saakashvili gathered 53.3 percent of the votes. "The gap in vote count between Mikhail Saakashvili and his runner-up - candidate for President Levan Gachechiladze - made 500,000 votes," Mr Tarkhnishvili said.