იმედია, მოდერების ახალი წესები არ დამირღვევია. ეს სტატია საინტერესო იქნება ყველასთვის, ვისაც ხედვა ოკეანისმიღმეთიდან აინტერესებს.



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/world/eu...r=1&oref=slogin




Saturday Vote Tests Georgian Leader

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia’s American-educated and pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was leading in polls ahead of an election Saturday cast as a bid to restore his mandate after the police violently dispersed an opposition rally here in November.

That police action by a president held up as a paragon of democratic leadership in the former Soviet Union created a din of criticism at home and in the West and tarred Mr. Saakashvili’s reputation.

The election, however, has evolved as much into a referendum on Mr. Saakashvili’s ultra-liberal economic reforms that have brought foreign investment and growth to one of this region’s poorest countries but left pockets of poverty and runaway unemployment.

Bread-and-butter financial issues, more than democratic credentials or Georgia’s tense relations with Russia and cozying up to the United States, were the driving issues in the election.

The headline economic progress has been remarkable and the difficulty in meeting rising expectations here was surely an issue; Georgia’s economy grew 10 percent in 2007.

Yet below the surface, as has been the case elsewhere in former Communist countries, poverty and unemployment are corroding support for a firm American ally on the southern rim of the former Soviet Union. The country is important to the United States, in part, for a key oil pipeline that crosses its territory.

Mr. Saakashvili’s government has also supported the United States by deploying troops in Iraq and is the third largest contributor of troops after only America and Britain. At home, though, roughly a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

“There was a segment of society that felt like we didn’t care,” Giga Bokeria, a member of Georgia’s Parliament and ally of the president, conceded in an interview here Friday.

Seven candidates are on the ballot on Saturday. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held in two weeks.

A poll by the Washington firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, sponsored by Mr. Saakashvili’s campaign and released on Thursday, showed Mr. Saakashvili with support from 52 percent of likely voters, with a margin of error of 3.4 percent.

The leading opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze, who represents a coalition of nine opposition parties, garnered 16 percent among likely voters, according to the poll conducted in mid December.

Mr. Saakashvili called the election after he ordered riot police to disperse a street protest that turned violent on Nov. 7.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters whom Mr. Saakashvili’s aides have characterized as rioters. Government troops also closed an independent television station, Imedi, which is operated by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. During the operation to take the station off the air, troops rampaged inside the studios, smashing what company officials estimate was between $3 and $4 million worth of equipment.

Imedi is owned by Badri Patarkatsishvili, a mercurial billionaire who is now living in London yet remains a candidate on the ballot Saturday, and said in an interview he is a business partner with Mr. Murdoch in the television station.

In December, the Georgian government released clandestinely filmed video tapes showing Mr. Patarkatsishvili offering a Georgian interior ministry official a $100 million bribe, apparently to help stage a coup.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Mr. Patarkatsishvili did not contest the specifics of a transcript of the video released by Georgian authorities, but said the proposed payment was intended to prevent police violence against peaceful protesters after the vote Saturday.

That proposed bribe, large even by former Soviet standards, has also loomed large in the race here. Imedi reporters and editors voluntarily shut down broadcasts Dec. 26, less than a month after returning to the air, to protest Mr. Patarkatsishvili’s ownership, though they say the station is managed by News Corp.

In another twist involving Mr. Patarkatsishvili, on Thursday the billionaire offered to pay monthly stipends of about $35 to the country’s unemployed from his personal fortune if he were to win the presidency. While he is unlikely to win, the offer underscored the importance of bread-and-butter economic issues here and might draw enough votes to upset Mr. Saakashvili’s slim margin in the first round.

The election on Saturday is also a plebiscite on Georgia’s hoped-for integration into NATO, widely supported here. Six of the seven candidates and a majority of Georgians support NATO membership.

A show of popular support will surely help Georgia’s case for membership, though the alliance has been wary of offering the country membership because of the likelihood of entanglements with Russia because the governments of two separatist regions in Georgia are supported by Russia.

Also on Saturday, voters will decide whether to a hold parliamentary elections this spring or next fall.