Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls. French-born Zurabishvili, 66, took the oath of office in the courtyard of an 18th-century manor that belonged to Georgia’s penultimate king Heraclius II. Opposition parties have refused to recognize Zurabishvili’s election and tried to hold a protest rally outside the royal residence. She defeated Grigol Vashadze, the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement. Adopted in September 2017, the constitutional change was protested by all opposition parties which denounced it as favoring the ruling party.

Source: Egypt Independent December 16, 2018 13:52 UTC