Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF version

Saakashvili can be beaten at the polls, and here's the man who did it

Yesterday Georgia's lawyers elected a new leader, the man who has promised to make Saakashvili eat his tie a second time, Zaza Khatiashvili.

Khatiashvili won despite a concerted campaign by the regime to deliver victory for his opponent Keti Kvartskhava.

"The law students from Kakheti who supported me at the elections to the Security Council were put in cars, had their mobile phones taken off them and told not to support me. They told them to vote for the Government candidate. The Office of the Public Prosecutor, SOD and the courts are actually enemies of the development of the legal profession, and it is horrible that they are interfering in the Lawyers Association elections. Saakashvili is fighting me because he knows that if I become Association Chairman the police state which has been created in Georgia would be unmasked inside and outside the country. Saakashvili will not accept me as Chairman of the Association, but lawyers must unite. If I become the Chairman neither the Government nor the opposition will be able to dictate to it," Khatiashvili told the Akhali Taoba (New Leadership) paper, reports the Messenger.

Having given the first round of voting, a week ago, which was topped by Kvartskhava, the official media have done their best to ignore the slap in the face of the regime delivered by Khatiashvili's victory - with the public channel reporting it on their website but not even making their brief report from the morning's news available online.

Well, here it is ... proof that Saakashvili can be beaten. Food for thought in 2010?