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Georgia election date set for 2004

Burdzhanadze says her top priorities are to maintain stability and prepare for new elections.
Burdzhanadze says her top priorities are to maintain stability and prepare for new elections.

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NINO BURDZHANADZE

Age: 39, married with two daughters

A trained lawyer she worked as a professor of international relations and law at Tbilisi State University

First elected to parliament in 1995 she was elected speaker in 2001

Initially a Shevardnadze supporter she broke relations with the former president in 2003 over the national budget and allegations of mounting corruption

Source: The Associated Press

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TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia's parliament has scheduled presidential elections for January 4, 2004, following the popular overthrow of Eduard Shevardnadze.

The move came as Georgia's Supreme Court annulled the controversial November 2 parliamentary elections, which sparked widespread protests and led to the president's resignation Sunday.

Opposition leaders said the poll was rigged against them to keep pro-government parties in power. Shevardnadze has been in power for the past 11 years and had been the face of Georgia during Soviet times.

The court cited voter fraud in throwing out the elections and left the old parliament in place until new elections are held.

On Tuesday, interim president and opposition leader Nino Burdzhanadze convened the old parliament to pass the vote to allow news elections.

Also she warned that Georgia is "on the verge of economic collapse" adding she would appeal for urgent financial aid.

"The situation is very difficult ... It's even worse than we thought. We must take radical measures," she told administration officials during a televised meeting at presidential buildings.

Georgia has been in an economic crisis for more than a decade, with many blaming Shevardnadze for leading the country into financial ruin during his 11-year rule.

Georgia has a foreign debt of $1.75 billion which it is on the verge of defaulting, mainly towards Turkey and Russia.

It also gets financial support from the United States, but opposition leaders have argued that much of that money was misspent by Shevardnadze.

The country has fallen out with the International Monetary Fund which, during Shevardnadze's rule, refused loans citing mass corruption and tax evasion.

"We need to have peace in the country," Burdzhanadze told CNN after a meeting with the National Security Council of Georgia.

Some of Shevardnadze's Cabinet resigned Tuesday.

The outgoing president is believed to have remained in Georgia despite being overthrown by popular protest. Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside parliamentary buildings during the weekend, and stormed the chamber at one stage interrupting a Shevardnadze speech and forcing him to quit proceedings.

Parliamentary elections are expected to be delayed until next April or May.

"To have simultaneously both elections would be a very difficult issue, I think," Burdzhanadze told CNN.

Burdzhanadze was elected speaker under the outgoing regime and is expected to run against a fellow opposition leader, Mikhail Saakashvili, for the presidency.

One of the impetus' for the popular protests was the extreme poverty experienced by the bulk of Georgians.

Pensioners have been waiting more than five months for their $7 monthly payments, Burdzhanadze said.

"I really don't know how people can survive in this country," she added.

The country of about five million people in the Caucasus Mountains is one of the poorest nations of the former Soviet Union. The average daily wage is about $1.

Shevardnadze, in an exclusive 30-minute interview with CNN, said his family had urged him more than a month ago to quit, but he could not.

"My feeling of responsibility to the people didn't allow me to take this step earlier," the 75-year-old former Soviet minister of foreign affairs said.

Shevardnadze said the decision to finally step down to avoid bloodshed was his alone, and the U.S. government did not pressure him.

Asked about his plans, he said he would write his memoirs and include material dating back to the Cold War era.

He said he had turned down an invitation from Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to move there.

CNN Correspondent Ryan Chilcote contributed to this report


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