Georgia votes in snap polls under shadow of unrest

GEORGIA, AFP

Georgians voted Saturday in a snap presidential election called by pro-Western reformer Mikheil Saakashvili to quell unrest and restore his democratic credentials.

Saakashvili, 40, faced six challengers in the poll, which opened under a heavy snowfall across the tiny, but strategic former Soviet republic of five million people.

Saakashvili, who came to power four years ago in the peaceful pro-democracy Rose Revolution, called the election a year early in response to violent clashes between police and protestors in November.

At a polling station in the centre of the ancient capital Tbilisi, Nodar Zardiashvili, a 49-year-old engineer, said he had voted for Saakashvili "because he is doing the right thing by taking the country into NATO and the European Union."

Most Georgians back Saakashvili's strongly pro-Western course, despite an angry reaction from former ruler Russia. An overwhelming "yes" vote was expected in a non-binding referendum also held Saturday on joining NATO.

Yet Saakashvili faces unprecedented opposition from Georgians who feel he betrayed the Rose Revolution by amassing personal power and forgetting the poor left behind in his free market reforms.

"We've had enough of Saakashvili. November was the last straw," said Nino Saladze, 51, an accountant, after voting for the main challenger, wine entrepreneur Levan Gachechiladze.

Gachechiladze is running on a platform of abolishing the presidency and turning Georgia into a parliamentary republic.

Hundreds of foreign election observers were deployed in a major test of democracy for a country striving to shake off the legacy of Soviet rule and civil war in the 1990s.

Opposition candidates claim that Saakashvili has already rigged the poll and vowed to take to the streets Sunday, raising fears of a new confrontation with the authorities.

"People are afraid, not only about who will win the elections, but about what might happen after," said Gia Nodia, an analyst for the Caucasus Institute of Peace, Democracy and Development.

On the eve of voting, Saakashvili appealed for a fresh mandate "to lead Georgia to victory" and "to show the whole world that Georgian democracy is still alive."

Polls commissioned by the seven candidates in Saturday's contest indicate the race is too tight to call. Most analysts believe Saakashvili, a multilingual, US-trained lawyer, is well ahead of Gachechiladze, who was nominated by nine of the 10 opposition parties that organized November's demonstrations.

However, polls suggest that up to a quarter of voters are undecided, which means that Saakashvili is not certain to get 50 percent of ballots - the minimum for avoiding the run-off round two weeks from now.

Washington, the European Union and former imperial master Russia are watching closely, mindful of Georgia's growing strategic importance.

Major US-backed oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Turkey run via Georgia, and Saakashvili has defied Russian pressure in applying for NATO membership.

Moscow punished Georgia's pro-Western course with sweeping economic sanctions in 2006 and also supports armed rebels who control two separatist regions of Georgia - Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi are likely to rise further after the NATO referendum. Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe are to issue a report Sunday on the conduct of the election.

The polls were due to close at 8:00 pm (1600 GMT), with partial results being published hours later.