Saakashvili touts success in rebel region before Georgia vote
BATUMI, Georgia (AFP) — Cheered by thousands of flag-waving supporters, Mikheil Saakashvili touted his success in the former rebel region of Adjara as his re-election campaign for Georgia's presidency neared its end.
Ahead of Saturday's vote, Saakashvili addressed a crowd in the Adjarian capital Batumi, a Soviet-era resort city has regained some of its lustre since the Adjara region came back under government control in 2004.
In his speech Thursday, he repeated promises to restore Georgia's territorial integrity if re-elected by regaining control over two remaining rebel regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"Today's generations, our sons and our grandparents, will say that we built the modern Georgian state, that we unified Georgia," he told the cheering crowd.
Polls commissioned by the seven candidates in Saturday's contest offer conflicting data, although most analysts believe Saakashvili heads the field.
A poll released by Saakashvili's campaign team Thursday showed him leading with 42 percent support, followed by main opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze with 19 percent and controversial businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili with 11 percent.
The poll, conducted by international firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, was based on 1,200 interviews conducted in early December.
Saakashvili has touted Adjara as one of the great successes of his presidency. Before Saakashvili came to power after the peaceful, pro-Western Rose Revolution, the Black Sea region had resisted central control for more than a decade.
Shortly after becoming president, Saakashvili engineered a peaceful uprising that overthrew the region's authoritarian ruler, Aslan Abashidze, who fled to Russia in the face of street protests.
The region has since benefited from a wave of investment. Frequent power cuts have ceased, roads have been repaved and Soviet-era buildings have been painted in bright colours along central Rustaveli Avenue, lined with palm trees.
Massive efforts are now underway to rebuild the region's tourism industry.
"We are going to open 25 large hotels by 2010, while now there is only one," the head of Adjara's local government, Levan Varshalomidze, told AFP as he showed off development plans.
The ambitious local leader is convinced that Adjara's example will convince the rebel region of Abkhazia, north of Adjara on the Black Sea, also to join forces with Tbilisi.
He estimated that by 2009 Adjara would succeed in attracting a million tourists a year, up from 350,000 this year and 50,000 before Abashidze's ouster.
Not everyone, however, is so impressed with the changes.
"Before everything belonged to Abashidze's clan and now everything belongs to Saakashvili's clan," said David Batsikadze, the Batumi campaign chief for Gachechiladze.
Saakashvili called the snap presidential poll after riot police clashed with anti-government protesters on November 7 and he imposed a state of emergency that lasted for nine days.
Batsikadze claimed Saakashvili was planning to rig Saturday's poll, alleging violations on the voters' list and the use of state resources for the incumbent's campaign.
"To boast in the 21st century of having restored electricity is ridiculous," he said. "People need democracy, to which Saakashvili delivered a fatal blow on November 7."
But Asmat Diasamidze, a 40-year-old teacher, said her family would not think twice about voting for Saakashvili.
"There needs to be order in the country," she said, pointing out that her salary had doubled in the last four years and that her husband could now run his small business "without facing extortion."
