As they have done over the past week, several hundred market traders gathered outside the Georgian parliament building on March 1 to protest the new law that went into effect that day requiring them to install cash registers. Similar protests have been reported in Batumi, Zugdidi, and Gori, where police blocked roads to Tbilisi on March 1 to prevent traders traveling to the capital to join the protest there. The traders complain that they cannot afford to buy cash registers, and want the new law to take effect only in 2008; they have proposed that a profit tax be introduced instead. But Agriculture Minister Mikheil Svimonishvili countered on February 25 that cash registers cost as little as 200 laris ($109). He also explained that the cash-register requirement does not extend to small farmers seeking to sell agricultural produce at markets. Members of the opposition Labor party who joined the Tbilisi protest on March 1 argued that \"if the president and the parliament do not want to listen to the people, we shall demand their resignation and new elections.\" (Caucasus Press)