Mikhail Saakashvili claims Georgian election victory
Exit polls suggest Mikhail Saakashvili is about to become Georgia’s new president.
Mikhail Saakashvili, a 36-year-old lawyer who was educated in the USA is expected to become Georgia’s new president today.
Elections yesterday follow a popular uprising in November that overthrew then president Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili led the uprising and exit polls suggest he received more than 80 per cent of the vote.
The official result is expected later today, but Mr Saakashvili has claimed victory and has set out the new role his Government will play. Importantly more than 50 per cent of the population voted, making the poll valid.
Many of his team are western educated, and his opposition to the previous government was supported by the west. However, Georgia has many ties to Russia, which supported the Shevardnadze government. As such the new president has promised to balance Georgia’s relationship with both.
Foreign interest in Georgia is high because it’s strategic importance for the supply of oil from the Caspian to western markets.
Problems facing the new Georgian government include widespread crime, power shortages, poverty, corruption, foreign debt and high unemployment. The country also has ongoing violence following the revolution, and faces further upheaval with two small regions refusing to recognise the election.
The new president has so far focused attention on the rule of law, promising to establish new law enforcement agencies and strengthen support for the state and the judiciary. He has also indicated that Government posts would be shared between western educated colleagues.
Meanwhile Eduard Shevardnadze has endorsed his successor. Mr Saakashvili had been seen by some as his protege, and he commented that: “If he will work, if he wants that, then everything will be all right.”
