Some 4,000 people have gathered on Rike Square in Tbilisi, in the first mass demonstration after police cracked down on protestors on November 7. Mass street protests in early November caused President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign and appoint early presidential elections for January 5.
The protestors are also demanding that the government allow independent Imedi TV company to resume broadcasts.
Imedi, established by billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, who finances the opposition and plans to challenge the incumbent president in the early January 5 polls, was closed amid anti-government rallies earlier in November. The channel had broadcast what authorities called appeals for forcible regime change. Imedi's property was later arrested, and its license frozen.
