(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-09 17:05

TBILISI - French Ambassador to Georgia Eric Fournier called on the Caucasus nation on Tuesday to take immediate measures to settle shortcomings in Saturday's presidential election and issue the results at an early date.

Opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze speaks to the media during a rally in Tbilisi January 8, 2008. [Agencies]

"However, the European Union also notes significant challenges were revealed which need to be addressed urgently," Fournier told reporters in the mountainous capital while commenting on the January 5 election in the name of European Union.

"The European Union urges Georgia to take all necessary steps to address the identified shortcomings in order to ensure successful parliamentary elections later this year," he said after meeting with opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze.

He urged the authority to issue the election results at an early date and ensure complaints about the election to be addressed soon.

"The European Union urges all political forces to respect the election results and to engage constructively and democratically in order to ensure Georgia continues moving forward," he said.

Gachechiladze complained about the election process, saying it was manipulated and accused the election authority, the Central Election Commission (CEC), of rigging protocols that will decide the preliminary results.

The opposition urges for a second round of run-off and warned to take actions to protest against the preliminary results, the former wine-maker backed by a nine-party opposition coalition told a press conference.

Gachechiladze went to the CEC building Tuesday morning to protest the preliminary results, saying ballots protocols were rigged, a claim dismissed by CEC chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili.

A spokesman of CEC said it's a "regretful" incident for Gachechiladze to "intrude" into the CEC building and it's a strive to put pressure on the election authority and to cast influence on the election results.

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