Georgians choose successor to ousted Shevardnadze

Six weeks after President Eduard Shevardnadze’s dramatic resignation in the face of mass demonstrations, Georgians today vote for his successor, widely expected to be the man who led the protests.

Mikhail Saakashvili, the 36-year-old Western-educated president of the Tbilisi city council, is the overwhelming favourite against four relatively unknown challengers. A fifth challenger dropped out of the race late yesterday.

The election is being closely watched as an indicator of Georgia’s commitment to democracy after the downfall of Mr Shevardnadze, who had cultivated ties with the West but retained Soviet-era impulses.

The protests against Mr Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, broke out after November parliamentary elections criticised as severely fraudulent.

Mr Saakashvili and his supporters have declared their commitment to democracy and today’s election “is the first real test. Are they what they purport to be?” said Craig Jenness, head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe election monitoring mission.

Mark Mullen of the US-based National Democratic Institute, which has worked closely with Mr Saakashvili and other Georgian politicians, said he does not expect abuses by Mr Saakashvili’s supporters.

“I don’t think there’s much of an intent to subvert the process. Conveniently, there’s no incentive for them to subvert it,” he said, referring to Mr Saakashvili’s strong victory prospects.

But the elections are not expected to be trouble free. Georgia’s chaotic record-keeping has made preparing comprehensive voter lists impossible and the total number of eligible voters is unknown – a potentially touchy issue because the constitution requires a 50% turnout to be valid.

Prospects for definitive results were uncertain. Georgia’s communications system is shaky and many polling places are in remote villages huddled in hard-to-reach gorges and steep valleys. In the November election, returns were not compiled for several days.

The turnout question is especially complicated in the province of Adzharia, whose leader Aslan Abashidze is a vehement opponent of Mr Saakashvili. Mr Abashidze this week backed down from a threat to keep the province’s polling stations closed today, but has called on his backers not to vote.

Because of that last-minute decision to allow voting, the number of eligible voters in Adzharia is difficult to determine even in broad terms. The Georgian elections commission is considering regarding the number of people who vote in Adzharia as the same as the number of eligible voters.

A series of shootings and explosions over the past month have put Georgia on edge. Shots were fired at the homes of officials both of Mr Abashidze’s Revival party and of the pro-Shevardnadze For a New Georgia bloc. An explosion rattled the offices of the state television station and the studios of an independent television station were shelled with a grenade launcher.

Georgia, with around 5.5 million people, was comparatively well-off during Soviet times, its economy bolstered by tourism and its famous wines. But after the collapse of Communism, the country’s industries collapsed and Georgia was torn by the separatist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Widespread corruption has siphoned off massive Western aid.