President Mikheil Saakashvili pleased anxious Western allies by announcing a snap presidential election on January 5. He then displeased them considerably by saying he will lift emergency rule when he decides the country is ready, and not when instructed to from abroad. The state of emergency and media blackout is expected to end November 16, nine days after its declaration amid a violent dispersal of anti-government protests in Tbilisi.

A Tbilisi court ordered the suspension of Imedi TV’s broadcast license. The News Corp-owned television network, which station execs say was ransacked and the government claims was inciting a revolution, will remain off-air for now. There is no suggestion of when Imedi, once the country’s most watched network and considered unfriendly towards the government, could restart broadcasts.

The opposition coalition nominated Levan Gachechiladze, a man professing to have no political ambitions, for the presidency. Salome Zourabichvili would be his prime minister, and together they would work to transform Georgia into a parliamentary republic.

The presidential election will not be short of contenders: tycoon and Imedi TV founder Badri Patarkatsishvili, wanted for questioning about the events on November 7, declared a bid for the presidency. So did New Rights leader Davit Gamkrelidze, Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili, and former Enron economist Gia Maisashvili. They will all be contending with Mikheil Saakashvili, favored to win another five-year term.

Top US envoy for the region Matthew Bryza, in town to assess the fallout from last week’s violence and prod the government forward, warned that the Georgian beacon of democracy was flickering. Much is now riding, he said, on free and fair elections in January.

Givi Targamadze, chair of the Defense and Security Committee, warned that Moscow’s recognition of an independent Abkhazia would be taken as a “declaration of war.” More bellicose rhetoric accompanied the statement, as Tbilisi reacts to what it says was a Russian-backed putsch.

Authorities declared arrested ex-minister Irakli Okruashvili, now out on bail and out of the country, a wanted man. He was released from prison after recanting lurid accusations against the president; he then repeated them from Munich, saying his retraction came under pressure. His political allies suggest he will seek political asylum abroad.

Parliament moved forward on a bundle of amendments to election law. Among other major and minor tweaks, they would add partisan election commissioners, scrap the majoritarian voting system and drop the vote threshold for parliamentary representation from seven to five percent. Opposition politicians are divided on whether the reforms are enough for them, but the majority looks intent on pushing the proposal through in time for the next elections.

The president, appearing this week on the state-owned broadcaster still allowed to show news, defended the government’s record and assured voters of continuing success. On successive days, he raised public teachers’ salaries, issued a sweeping amnesty to petty criminals and promised more good things to come. It looked like campaigning, but his public addresses usually do.