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| - Georgia's opposition boycotted the country's newly elected parliament when it convened for its first session on Friday over accusations of fraud in October's legislative vote. All of Georgia's opposition parties have accused the county's ruling Georgian Dream party of rigging the October 31 vote it narrowly won, sparking a political crisis in the ex-Soviet country. They have staged mass protests calling for snap polls -- a demand rejected by billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream, which denies accusations of electoral fraud. On Friday, when the new parliament convened for its first session, only ruling party MPs attended, while opposition leaders held a meeting during which they renounced their mandates. "We refuse to legalise the election stolen by Bidzina Ivanishvili. This is not only a one-party parliament; this is one man's -- Ivanishvili's -- parliament," Nika Melia, a leader of Georgia's main opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, told AFP. During the October vote, Georgian Dream secured 90 seats in the country's 150-member legislature, while opposition parties won 60. An opposition boycott could weigh heavily on the ruling party's political legitimacy. President Zurabishvili said she "regretted" the opposition's boycott and expressed "hope that this parliament will be multi-party". "We are confident that part of the opposition MPs will in the near future assume their seats in the new parliament," Irakli Kobakhidze, a Georgian Dream leader, told journalists ahead of the plenary session. In an unprecedented show of unity before October's elections, exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's UNM party agreed with smaller opposition groups to form a coalition government if they win a parliamentary majority. In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has seen its popularity fall due to discontent over its failure to address economic stagnation and perceived backsliding on commitments to democracy. Critics accuse the country's richest man Ivanishvili -- who is widely seen to be calling the shots in Georgia -- of persecuting political opponents and creating a corrupt system where private interests permeate politics. im/emg/pma
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