By Margarita Antidze
TBILISI (Reuters) - Around 20,000 people protested incentral Tbilisi on Friday against Georgian President MikhailSaakashvili, the largest demonstration against therevolutionary leader since he was sworn in for a second termlast month.
Protesters wore their trademark white neck-scarves at therally outside parliament where in November police fired teargasand rubber bullets to break up an anti-governmentdemonstration.
"Long live Georgia! Misha go!" they shouted, a reference toa widely used nickname for Saakashvili, who swept to power in apeaceful 2003 revolution.
Georgia's main opposition parties have staged a series ofdemonstrations since a January 5 presidential election whichthey say Saakashvili rigged. Western monitors said the vote wasflawed but still reflected the will of the electorate.
Alongside the usual banners and slogans were portraits ofGeorgian billionaire and opposition financier BadriPatarkatsishvili who died at his mansion in southern England onTuesday.
"Badri Patarkatsishvili's death in suspicious circumstanceshas given rise to suspicion that he has been killed," KobaDavitashvili, one of the opposition leaders, told the crowd.
Former Soviet Georgia is at the heart of the volatileCaucasus region which hosts a major pipeline pumping oil fromthe Caspian Sea to Europe.
British police have said that the 52-year-oldPatarkatsishvili, who chain-smoked cigarettes, died of a heartattack, but that hasn't stopped the gossips on the streets ofGeorgia linking Saakashvili to the death of one of his mostpowerful enemies -- even indirectly.
"I think that even if Badri died of a heart attack, ithappened because of the accusations against him," GuramKacharava, one of the demonstrators, told Reuters.
Saakashvili accused Patarkatashvili, known simply as Badri,of plotting a coup and ordered his arrest.
Patarkatsishvili made his fortune in Russia during thechaotic post-Soviet 1990s and was regarded with suspicion inhis native Georgia.
He campaigned for the January 5 election without settingfoot in his native Georgia and won around 7 percent of the voteby pledging to lavish millions of dollars on the poor. Thiscompared to 53 percent for Saakashvili and 27 percent for themain opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze.
The opposition have threatened to set up a tent cityoutside parliament to protest against the election.
(Reporting by Margarita Antidze, writing by James Kilner inMoscow)