Georgian election: President tells public to show the world where they stand on ‘rigged vote’

Zourabichvili made clear the protest would be “very peaceful”, adding that she did not believe Georgia’s authorities wanted confrontation.

It is not entirely clear what she and the four opposition groups hope to achieve by bringing Georgians on to the main avenue in front of the parliament on Monday.

“The main thing we want here is to get what we deserve – legal elections. No-one had any idea this would happen. At first we were frustrated, then we realised what happened and now we’re angry,” said Lasha, 22.

The president said it was up to the people and the political parties to decide what happened next.

“My call was to have a demonstration but where does the Georgian population stand? It’s what we’re going to see tonight.”

“Maybe we won’t be able to achieve it today or tomorrow,” she said.

“There are a number of things that can be done. There can be an international review of some of the elements of the election, there can be a call for new elections. In what period of time I don’t know.”

The European Union, Nato and the US have called for a full investigation into allegations by monitoring missions of vote fraud before and on the day of Saturday’s vote.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Georgians had a “right to see that electoral irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently and independently.”

She added that “Georgians, like all Europeans, must be the masters of their own destiny.”

The call for protest echoes weeks of demonstrations that brought Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue to a standstill for weeks earlier this year.