TBILISI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Voters in Georgia face a stark
choice between "good and evil" in parliamentary elections on
Oct. 1, said opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili on Saturday,
following days of protests over state prison brutality that have
left the ruling party reeling.
"We should make a choice between good and evil on October
1," Bidzina Ivanishvili, told a crowd in Zugdidi in western
Georgia.
"We promise to come to power and to restore justice," said
the billionaire leader of the "Georgian Dream" opposition
coalition.
Thousands of people gathered at Zugdidi's central square to
show their support for the opposition, which poses a serious
challenge to President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National
Movement party's chances of winning the upcoming vote.
Protests were sparked in Georgia this week after footage
showing the torture and rape of inmates in the capital's main
prison was aired by two television channels supportive of the
opposition.
Hours after the release of the prison video, Saakashvili
promised to punish those responsible and seek radical reforms of
the jail system, asking policemen to take over prison guard
duties while reforms were being worked out.
The country's interior minister tendered his resignation
over the scandal and the prisons minister also stepped down.
IMPACT
Surveys conducted before the scandal erupted showed
Saakashvili's party some 20 points ahead of Georgian Dream, a
platform set up by Ivanishvili.
Saakashvili's government says the video, which shows guards
beating, punching and humiliating prisoners, as well as inmates
being raped with objects, was recorded by guards who were bribed
by "politically motivated persons".
The head of the Tbilisi prison, his two deputies and several
prison guards were arrested, while international organisations
and human rights groups called for a prompt investigation.
Ivanishvili, his fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at
$6.4 billion, owns one of the broadcasters that showed the film.
A once-reclusive tycoon whose wealth equals nearly half
Georgia's economic output, Ivanishvili launched his political
movement last year and has campaigned on calls for Saakashvili
to resign.
Saakashvili became the West's political darling when he rose
to power after the bloodless "Rose Revolution" that toppled
Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, in 2003.
But opponents have accused him of curbing political freedoms
and criticised him for leading Georgia - a country of 4.7
million people on a transit route for oil and gas supplies
across the volatile Caucasus region - into a brief but
disastrous war with Russia in August 2008.
