AKIPRESS.COM - Thousands of Georgians protested in Tbilisi on Sunday against the result of the country’s presidential election, as defeated candidate Grigol Vashadze said opposition parties would challenge the outcome in court, Reuters reports.

Vashadze has described the election as a “criminal farce” and has called for snap parliamentary elections after the central election commission said on Thursday that Salome Zurabishvili, who was backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had secured 59.5 percent of the vote. Vashadze had 40.5 percent, it said.

“We don’t recognize illegitimate results of this rigged election and demand an early parliamentary election to be called in the country,” Vashadze told thousands of supporters at Sunday’s rally in Tbilisi.

Zurabishvili is set to become the country’s first female head of state, although the role is largely ceremonial.

Vashadze said that if the government rejects the opposition’s demands, another peaceful protest would be held on Dec. 16, the day of the president-elect’s inauguration.

Both Zurabishvili and Vashadze favor strong ties with the West.

Zurabishvili, a former French career diplomat who served as Georgia’s foreign minister from 2004-2005, told Reuters in an interview on Saturday that the opposition’s call for people to refuse to recognize the results of the election served Russia’s interests.