TBILISI, Nov 2: At least 50,000 protesters demonstrated on Friday in the Georgian capital Tbilisi against the rule of President Mikhail Saakashvili, four years after he led the Rose Revolution in this strategic ex-Soviet republic.

Opposition leaders told the peaceful crowd in the centre of the ancient city that Saakashvili — a key Western ally in the Caucasus region — must move parliamentary elections currently pencilled in for late 2008 to April.

“We demand early elections,” said Davit Berdzenishvili, leader of the opposition Republican Party.

But Giga Bokeria, a senior member of Georgia’s ruling National Movement party and a close ally of Saakashvili, told Rustavi-2 television: “The opposition’s demands are not serious. The election dates will not be changed.”

The huge crowd, occupying most of the city’s elegant Rustaveli Avenue and flowing up onto the stairs of parliament, chanted to Saakashvili and his government: “Leave, leave!”.

—AFP