The FINANCIAL — According to RIA Novosti, Georgia's ex-defense minister and opposition leader, Irakly Okruashvili, has gone on a hunger strike to protest the January 5 presidential vote results, Georgian Rustavi-2 TV company said on January 13.
Okruashvili, once a key ally of the U.S.-educated president, Mikheil Saakashvili, is currently in French jail following his extradition from Germany where he was detained on the request of the Georgian Prosecutor's Office over corruption charges. Okruashvili earlier sought political asylum in France.
"Okruashvili has been on a hunger strike for the fourth consecutive day. He demands a second round of the presidential elections [in Georgia]. He does not intend to halt his hunger strike," his lawyer Yekaterina Beseliya told Rustabi-2.
Georgia's central election commission on Sunday officially announced Saakashvili as the winner of the early presidential poll in the South Caucasus republic with 53.47% of the vote while his nearest rival, united opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze, won 25.69% of the votes.
However, the Georgian opposition earlier said the election results were rigged and demanded a second round in the presidential elections. The Georgian opposition also said it would hold a 'peaceful' protest on January 13.
Early presidential elections were announced in Georgia after demonstrators had taken to the streets from November 2-7 demanding the resignation of President Saakashvili over corruption allegations. The protests were eventually put down by riot police, and Saakashvili subsequently announced early elections for January 5.
Saakashvili was elected as Georgian president following mass demonstrations during the country's 2003 "Rose" revolution, when former president Eduard Shevardnadze was swept from office following allegations of election fraud.
Okruashvili was initially arrested in Georgia in September after publicly accusing Saakashvili of ordering the murders of political opponents and of plotting to seize a breakaway region. He was released soon after on $6 million bail and left the Caucasus state.
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