Will Saakashvili try an electoral ambush?

October 10, 2009 by georgiamedia

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The regime could try moving the date of the local elections forward to February from the expected, and announced, date of 30 May in an effort to decisively wrong foot the opposition.

The old election-fighting adage that even if your opponent has lots of money and people (as the regime party have) they only ever have the same amount of time as you seems to be weighing on the thoughts of President Mikheil Saakashvili's strategists, according to the Georgian Messenger:

The next elections will be the local government elections of May 30, 2010, which will be held in Tbilisi among other places. This time the Mayor of Tbilisi will be directly elected by popular vote. The ruling party will presumably offer as candidate the current Mayor Gigi Ugulava. On programmes broadcast on the TV stations controlled by the state, Rustavi 2, Imedi TV and the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Ugulava has begun his campaign, though not officially. President Saakashvili’s initiative to hold the local elections on that date has not yet been confirmed by Parliament and the date is not yet official, leading some to believe that the local elections might be moved for February. The shorter the campaign, the more advantage this is thought to give an incumbent administration, as it gives the opposition less time (and resources) to present itself to the public. 

Ugulava (pictured) has certainly been behaving like a candidate and has the full resources of the state - including the national television stations - behind him. Recent announcements on kindergarten spending, city parking and Old Tbilisi were given extensive coverage on TV news (though the last of these was dominated by President Saakashvili's claim, from the platform, that the Tagliavini report showed he'd only ever told the truth.)

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