TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Georgia remains politically divided a week after President Mikhail Saakashvili won a controversial re-election.
More than 50,000 supporters of the Georgian opposition on Sunday in Tbilisi protested against what they see as a rigged presidential election.
Georgia's federal election commission announced that Saakashvili received 53.4 percent of the ballot in the Jan. 6 election, with his main rival, opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze, receiving 27 percent.
Gachechiladze has since accused Saakashvili of rigging the elections and called for another round of voting.
Even European election observers have since said voter fraud has taken place in Georgia, a small Caucasus republic that since the Rose Revolution in 2003 made giant steps toward the West.
Dieter Boden, a German member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper there was "crass, negligent and deliberate falsification during the vote counting." Conditions at Georgia's Central Elections Commission were "chaotic," Boden added.
The statements come just a few days after Boden in the same newspaper said the vote had met international standards. The controversy hasn't stopped Saakashvili, a pro-Western leader and a close ally to the United States, from claiming victory. In 2004, he was elected by a giant majority of 94 percent and had since pushed his country closer toward NATO and EU membership. U.S. President Bush congratulated Saakashvili Monday whose inauguration is scheduled for early next week.
