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There is continued confusion at the heart of the governing regime in Georgia over President Mikheil Saakashvili's apprent concession to the opposition's demand that the mayors of all five Georgian cities, and not just the capital Tbilisi, are directly elected next May.

The president's words appear either to be an off-the-cuff concession or a last minute addition to his speech to the UN, for as Evolutsia.Net points out the words used were not in the press handout of the speech.

Civil.ge now report that, even in Tbilisi, there are many in the UNM who are unhappy at the prospect of any sort of direct election.

The opposition won a majority of the votes in all five cities in the 2008 presidential election but, even if the election was free and fair, would be far from able to guarantee victory next May unless the electoral system allowed for preference voting or run-off ballots.