You can’t escape him in the streets of Tbilisi. The image of President Mikhail Saakashvili is omnipresent. Large campaign posters with his photograph hang in squares and traffic junctions. They also decorate buses.
"Try and find a billboard with someone from the opposition. You won’t. This election is a farce."Giorgi Targamadze is a presenter of the Imedi television station which was temporarily shut down in November on the orders of President Saakashvili. As a result of foreign pressure Imedi resumed broadcasting several weeks later. But now the station’s employees are again on strike. Targamadze says they are striking against the pressure the government is exerting on the media and the fact that one of the owners is taking part in the elections.
 A Georgian man at a bus stop. On the poster is presidential candidate Mikhail Saakashvili in Tbilisi
(Photo: EPA/Yuri Kochetkov) |
Mr Targamadze was world famous for a short period when his images were broadcast live throughout the world on 7 November. He was sitting in the studio when riot police entered the offices of Imedi and the lights went out. “Special police forces occupied the building and destroyed everything. Our journalists were facing 500 armed men. What happened was in complete contradiction to Georgian law.”Events came to a climax on 7 November. After days of massive demonstrations against the government of President Saakashvili, riot police cracked down hard. There were hundreds of injured on both sides. President Saakashvili proclaimed a state of emergency. He claimed the opposition was planning to seize power by force. He said the plot involved the owner of the Imedi television station, the millionaire Badri Patarkatshvili.
Realistic
President Saakashvili's Dutch wife, Sandra Roelofs, is convinced that there really was a chance that the violence would have got out of hand. "The events of 7 November have been a terrible blow to us and our family. But if you look back and consider what could have happened if the police hadn’t taken such drastic measure, then I think that we just have to accept it with reluctance and learn from it."
The state of emergency was of short duration. Mr Saakashvili called new elections and stepped down. Sandra Roelofs is convinced that the electorate will give her husband a new mandate. “When I travel through the country it’s obvious that people trust him and that they want to give him five years to build the house whose foundation has been laid during the last three or four years.”
Noticeable progress
Georgia has made noticeable progress in recent years as far as the fight against corruption is concerned and improvements in infrastructure. However, unemployment and widespread poverty continue to plague the country. Relations with neighbouring Russia are poor and Moscow’s economic boycott of Georgia has meant the loss of a major market, particularly for Georgian wine. There are also the unsolved ‘frozen’ conflicts in two provinces which have seceded from Georgia.
Sandra Roelofs says: “My husband says that when he hands Georgia over in five years it will include Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That’s quite a lot to do in five years. I think it’s a really daring statement.”
Divided opposition
The opposition is divided and has so far not been able to unite behind a single candidate. Former foreign minister Salome Zurabishvili, who is now a fierce opponent of the president, says the opposition "has the support of eighty percent of the population", which cannot be corraborated by opinion polls. Most observers believe that Saakashvili has the best chances, although its clear that his popularity has fallen considerably since the Rose Revolution.
*RNW Translation (fs)
Tags: Abkhazia, Badri Patarkatshvili, Georgia, Giorgi Targamadze, Mikhail Saakashvili, Sandra Roelofs, South Ossetia