TBILISI, Jan 9: Georgia’s leader Mikheil Saakashvili won re-election on Wednesday, sealing a bitterly fought victory that his main challenger has refused to accept.

Based on a complete preliminary count, the pro-Western reformer scored 52.21 per cent, clearing the 50 per cent hurdle for winning in one round. He was far ahead of his nearest rival Levan Gachechiladze, who got 25.26 per cent, the Central Election Commission said.

Saakashvili, who came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution, now has a new five-year mandate to pursue radical reforms to transform US-backed Georgia’s economy and push for Nato and EU membership.

In comments late Tuesday, Saakashvili, 40, also promised to mend crisis-ridden relations with neighbour Russia, which is infuriated by Georgia’s pro-Western course.

“I am ready to extend again my hand to Russia,” he told Rustavi 2 television, adding that he was ready to invite President Vladimir Putin to his inauguration.

However, his victory in the Jan 5 snap election was marred by opposition claims of ballot-rigging and a demand for a second round of voting.

Carrying placards reading “I don’t believe,” about 300 opposition supporters braved the cold to rally outside the headquarters of Georgian Public Television on Wednesday, accusing the network of bias.

The opposition has threatened a mass protest if the authorities do not overturn Saakashvili’s outright win by Sunday.

One of the protesters at Wednesday’s rally, student Giorgi Skhirtladze, predicted a huge turnout on Sunday.

“Not just Tbilisi will come out, but the whole of Georgia,” said Skhirtladze, 21. “We are against revolution but if we don’t defend our votes, what guarantee do we have that there will be democracy in the future?” The opposition backed away from plans for a number of activists to begin a hunger strike on Wednesday.

Opposition spokeswoman Nino Sturua said the hunger strike would take place later if some key demands, including live television time for Gachechiladze, were not met.

Levan Berzenishvili, a leader of the Republican Party, which backs Gachechiladze, said that the opposition would continue to file court challenges and complaints with the Central Election Commission.

“We will choose other forms of protest only after all judicial methods have been exhausted,” he said.

Saakashvili, 40, said in his television appearance that the election “demonstrated the will of the Georgian people” and he offered an olive branch to his opponents.

“No one can ignore the opinion of people who did not vote for us,” he said.

“We have to find consensus.” Political analyst Giorgi Margvelashvili said that the opposition was not strong enough to force a second-round run-off in an election that international observers had deemed largely free and fair.

“But their action is good for democracy in Georgia as well as for future parliamentary elections, when Saakashvili’s position will be weaker,” said Margvelashvili, from the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.

“The opposition’s actions are more a part of their campaign for the parliamentary elections,” which are thought likely to take place this spring, he said.

The January 5 presidential poll was called a year early in response to violent unrest in November in which police clubbed protestors and the authorities shut down the main opposition television station.

The unrest dented Saakashvili’s image as a leading democratic reformer in the ex-Soviet Union.

Despite winning re-election, the fact that Saakashvili barely avoided a run-off was a powerful rebuke for someone who four years ago first took the presidency with 96 per cent.—AFP