1.   Only hours before polls closed late yesterday afternoon, Mr Rafsanjani urged voters not to boycott the election.

2.   Opposition parties have threatened to boycott the elections.

3.   The Communists tried to boycott the election in the South, too, but the effort failed.

4.   The main opposition parties boycotted the election, saying it would not be conducted fairly.

5.   The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections.

6.   A rival of the Round Table, this party boycotted the elections on the grounds that the Supreme Soviet belonged to a power structure illegally imposed on Georgia.

7.   The Bcherons candidate stood in defiance of an instruction by the party leader to boycott the elections.