Georgia's Final Count

Based on a complete preliminary vote court, Saakashvili had won an absolutely majority in the Jan. 5 presidential election, thereby avoiding a run-off vote, Central Election Commission chief Levan Tarkhnishvili said on Tuesday, Jan. 8.

The incumbent won 52.21 of the tallied votes, while opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze came in second with 25.26 percent.

"It is the preliminary official result, which can be changed as a result of examination of complaints either in the Central Election Commission or in court," said Tarkhnishvili.

The opposition has continued to accuse the president rigging the vote. Saakashvili had also come under fire in November when he ordered police to quell an opposition rally and declared a state of emergency in the post-Soviet republic and called early elections.

Election gets OK from the West

Opposition members held a day of protest on Tuesday, promising to hold demonstrations next week in the capital Tbilisi despite record low temperatures, Russian news agency Interfax reported from Georgia.

"We don't recognize the results of these elections," Levan Berzenishvili, leader of the Republican Party, which backs Gachechiladze, told the AFP news agency. "We will continue our fight by legal means, through complaints in the Central Election Commission and courts. We will choose other forms of protest only after all judicial methods have been exhausted."

Gachechiladze, who has not yet accepted defeat, told the administration Tuesday, "I won't stop until you murder me."

Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe generally agreed that the vote was conducted fairly, if not optimally.

"This election wasn't brilliant, there were many blunders, mistakes and imperfections -- but nothing that would lead us to the conclusion that a large-scale rigging attempt had taken place," Dieter Boden, director of the OSCE's long-term observation project in Georgia told Germany's rbb-Inforadio on Monday.