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Unhappy Georgian presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze addresses his supporters during the demonstration in Tbilisi on December 2, 2018. Vano SHLAMOV / AFP

A few thousand supporters of the opposition protested this Sunday against the presidential election, which they consider stolen. On Wednesday, November 28, Salomé Zourabichvili, a former French diplomat of Georgian origin, was elected in the second round after the oligarch Bidzina Ivanichvili promised to buy 600,000 loans from Georgians in economic difficulty. According to most observers, this has tipped the vote of over 3 million Georgians in favor of Ms. Zourabishvili, very unfavorable ballot after the first round.

With our correspondent in Tbilisi, Régis Genté

The blow is so harsh for the Georgian opposition, that it had difficulty to mobilize its troops Sunday, December 2. The atmosphere was gloomy in front of the old Parliament, place of all political struggles for 30 years in the former Soviet republic.

In front of 5,000 demonstrators, leaders of the United National Movement, which led the country from 2004 to 2012, denounced the hundreds of thousands of " stolen " voices. Small mustache and glasses of intellectual, Grigol Vashadze, candidate who won 40% of votes in the second round , promised to fight against this injustice by democratic means.

Polite applause from a crowd as depressed ... and woke up when his real leader, former president Mikheil Saakashvili, appeared on the giant screen: " Hello, I want to salute the veterans of our struggle, and to the people who are come here today, "he said since his exile in the Netherlands. Accused of abuse of power , Mr. Saakashvili has not returned to his country since 2013.

After this presidential election, the opposition feels that it could seduce the 3.7 million Georgians again, but it remains divided as to how to recompose: with or without Mikheil Saakashvili? The former president attracts as many supporters as he rejects.

The protesters brandish Georgian flags and listen to the message of former President Mikheil Saakashvili who has been addressing them since his exile to the Netherlands on 2 December 2018 in Tbilisi. Vano SHLAMOV / AFP