A man walks past parliamentary election posters in Tbilisi on May 19.

Georgians voted on Wednesday in parliamentary elections that are being closely watched by outside powers as the country seeks the West’s backing in a bitter row with Russia.
Polling stations across the strategic ex-Soviet republic of 4.7 million people opened at 8:00 am (0400 GMT) and were due to close at 8:00 pm (1600 GMT), said AFP.
Diplomats and analysts have warned that the vote will have to be conducted fairly if Georgia is to get western support in a row over two separatist regions backed by Russia: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
On the eve of the vote, Georgia’s pro-western President Mikheil Saakashvili made an appeal for national unity, saying Russia would take advantage of any unrest.
“We have to realize how important tomorrow’s elections are. Our enemy wants tomorrow’s elections to turn into turmoil and internal confrontation,“ he said in a televised address.
“Our enemy is trying to weaken us and we must respond by consolidating our main values: liberty and democracy,“ he said.

Tensions
Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi have reached fever pitch ahead of the election, with Saakashvili saying earlier this month that the two countries had come close to war.
The tensions have centered on an announcement by Russia establishing closer ties with the separatist regions and on claims by Georgia that a Russian fighter jet downed a Georgian spy drone.
Behind the row lies Georgia’s determination to join the NATO alliance, say analysts.
Pre-election polls showed that Saakashvili’s United National Movement was likely to retain its majority in the 150-seat parliament against an opposition fractured by infighting.
But opposition leaders have denounced the poll as being undermined by fraud and have promised demonstrations.
Opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze told AFP he would call on supporters to force their way into the electoral commission office if authorities “do not release the real results of the vote.“
“The people have every right to protect their votes,“ he said.
The main western election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has sent 550 observers to monitor the vote and is to deliver a verdict on its conduct Thursday.
An ancient Christian country of soaring mountain peaks and deep traditions, Georgia has suffered through civil wars, the break away of two regions and repeated political turmoil since gaining independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Beacon of Democracy
Saakashvili has won praise for sweeping economic reforms since coming to power in 2004 after the peaceful Rose Revolution and supporters describe his government as a beacon of democracy in the often corrupt and authoritarian former Soviet Union.
But his goal of joining NATO has set him sharply at odds with Russia, which sees enlargement of the alliance as encroachment on its sphere of influence.
And Georgia’s democratic reputation was tarnished last November when Saakashvili sent riot police to suppress an opposition protest, imposed a brief period of emergency rule and shut down a critical television station.
His subsequent reelection in a snap presidential vote this January was also marred by opposition allegations of fraud.
Saakashvili’s United National Movement party was forecast to win the election with 43 percent of the vote, according to a survey released Monday by the Washington-based institute Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
The newly formed Christian Democratic Movement was in second place with 14 percent of votes, according to the survey of 1,200 Georgians carried out last week. Gachechiladze’s United Opposition Council was in third place at 11 percent.
About 3.4 million people are registered to vote.

Barack Obama stepped to the brink of victory in the Democratic presidential race, defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Oregon primary and moving within 100 delegates of the total he needs to claim the prize at the party convention this summer.
According to AP, Clinton countered with a lopsided win earlier Tuesday in Kentucky, a victory with scant political value in a race moving inexorably in Obama’s direction.
Obama said the night’s contests gave him a majority of the delegates elected in all 56 primaries and caucuses combined. They are distinct from the nearly 800 superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who are free to vote for any candidate and hold the balance of power at the convention this August in Denver.
Clinton won at least 37 delegates in the two states and Obama won at least 23, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is moving the Cabinet to Naples on Wednesday, vowing to clean the city’s streets of the garbage that has piled up for months and become a stinking symbol of government inadequacy, according to AP.
The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday in the southern city is the first major initiative by Berlusconi since he won election last month. His campaign included a promise to return Naples to cleanliness and order.
Berlusconi, who said he wanted to heal the wound of a city he loves, wants the meeting to be more than symbolic. He is expected to announce immediate measures, which might include opening new dump sites and calling in the army to clean streets and restore order--a measure that was taken by his predecessor, Romano Prodi, but only partially implemented in some smaller towns in the region.
In preparation for the Cabinet meeting, trash trucks have been working at full speed to remove some of the thousands of tons of garbage and make the city more presentable.

Myanmar’s state media said that the country will not accept relief supplies for cyclone victims carried by US warships and military helicopters.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Wednesday that such assistance would come with “strings attached“. The United States, as well as France, have naval vessels off the Myanmar coast prepared to airlift and land supplies for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
The commentary said other aid by the United States was welcome.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is heading to Myanmar from New York, said Tuesday that Myanmar’s ruling junta had given the UN permission to operate nine helicopters to reach stricken victims with relief supplies. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that Myanmar has agreed to allow UN into some areas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday met with the leader of Georgia’s separatist republic of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, who thanked Moscow for its financial support.
“Bagapsh thanked the Russian leaders for support of Abkhazia’s people and giving it economic, social and humanitarian aid,“ the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, AP reported.
The two sides “exchanged opinions on the situation in the conflict zone and called for measures to bring down the tensions as recommended by the UN Security Council’s resolutions,“ the statement added.
In recent weeks, Russia has boosted its support for the rebel governments in Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian control during wars following its independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia also increased its contingent of peacekeepers in Abkhazia by a third, to about 3,000, alleging that Georgia was preparing an invasion to retake the territory.