Citizens of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia are voting today in a parlimentary election set to give a stern rebuke to President Eduard Shevardnadze.
The president is blamed by many voters for a decade of poverty and corruption.
But there were farcical scenes as voters across the country were turned away from polling stations in what Shevardnadze's opponents said was part of a campaign to rig the vote to limit the scale of the government's defeat.
Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili was among possibly thousands of people unable to vote after he went to his local polling station and found his name had been mysteriously removed from the electoral roll.
Police and interior ministry troops were on high alert in anticipation of mass protests by opposition supporters, who have warned they will march on government offices if the results of voting are falsified.
