( dpa ) - Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has decreed that the Black Sea republic will hold parliamentary elections on May 21, state television channel Rustavi 2 reported Sunday.
Saakashvili won controversial January 5 presidential elections in Georgia. A plebiscite on the same day saw the electorate vote for early elections, the date of which was left open.
The opposition has refused to accept Saakashvili's victory and a hunger strike by opposition politicians and supporters outside the parliament in the capital Tbilisi has been going on since March 9.
The opposition are calling for a recount of the presidential vote and a change in electoral law. Doctors said some of the hunger- strikers are in danger of falling into a coma.
Meanwhile in London exiled Russian billionaire Boris Beresovski told Rustavi 2 he would financially support the opposition against the "authoritarian and corrupt" Georgian government.
Beresovski said he would continue the work of his friend Badri Patarkatsishvili, the Georgian tycoon and a candidate in the January elections who died of a heart attack in London last month.
Patarkatsishvili was a vocal critic of the current Georgian leadership. He fled to Israel and then Britain after being one of the main leaders of mass anti-government protests in December. He was later charged with plotting a coup against Saakashvili.