Zourabichvili continues to consider herself Georgian president, demands new parliamentary election to be called

TBILISI. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she still considers herself president.

Zourabichvili, whose presidential mandate expired at the end of last year, said at a news briefing in Tbilisi on Thursday that she was travelling to Washington at the invitation of United States Congress member Joe Wilson of the Republican Party to attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.

"I will have high-level meetings in Washington as the only legitimate president of Georgia," Zourabichvili said.

Mikheil Kavelashvili nominated by the Georgian Dream ruling party was recently elected as new Georgian president.

In a parliamentary election held on October 26, Georgian Dream garnered 89 parliamentary seats, while 61 other mandates went to four opposition parties that overcame the election threshold. Opposition groups disputed the election outcome and are calling for a new election to be held. Meanwhile, they have still not presented any facts to uphold their allegations that the authorities rigged over 300,000 votes.

Zourabichvili did not recognize the election's results, either. Speaking at the news briefing on Thursday, she once again warned that, because of the political crisis, Georgia is "on the verge of losing its statehood, and calling a new parliamentary election is the only way to overcome this situation."