GEORGIA: FAVOURITE MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI CLAIMS VICTORY IN GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Record ID: 643516

  • Title: GEORGIA: FAVOURITE MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI CLAIMS VICTORY IN GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
  • Date: 4th January 2003
  • Summary: (U6) TBILISI, GEORGIA (JANUARY 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. CLOSE OF ELECTION OFFICIALS UNSEALING BALLOT BOX, OPENING BOX (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. ELECTION OFFICIAL CARRYING BALLOT BOX AND POURING BALLOTS OUT OF BOX 0.24 3. CU: OBSERVERS WATCHING 0.30 4. ELECTION OFFICIALS COUNTING BALLOTS STORY 0.35 5. CU: BALLOTS ON TABLE 0.39 6. WS: MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI, HIS WIFE SANDRA ROELOFS, ACTING PRESIDENT NINO BURDZHANADZE AND PRIME MINISTER ZURAB ZHVANIA STANDING ON STAGE OF PHILHARMONIC LISTENING TO ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRELIMINARY ELECTION RESULT 0.46 7. CLOSE UP OF ZHVANIA, SAAKASHVILI, HIS WIFE SANDRA AND BURDZHANADZE LISTENING TO ANNOUNCEMENT; SAAKASHVILI KISSING HIS WIFE, BURDZHANADZE, AND ZHVANIA, THEN GOING DOWN TO AUDIENCE 1.10 8. SAAKASHVILI SUPPORTERS WAVING FLAGS OF HIS POLITICAL PARTY, NATIONAL MOVEMENT 1.17 9. GEORGIA'S ACTING PRESIDENT NINO BURDZHANADZE, PRIME MINISTER ZURAB ZHVANIA, SAAKASHVILI'S WIFE SANDRA ROELOFS LISTENING TO MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI'S SPEECH 1.21 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI SAYING: "I am of course proud, I am proud of my people, the level of participation was extremely high, the percentage of support that I've got was up to 97 percent which is absolutely sensational and frankly I do believe that its caused by the absence of any other credible and serious candidates in the race, but that's also huge responsibility, we've got very important mandate from our population to clean up the country, to consolidate power here, to make it efficient, to make investment-friendly, to make it peaceful and prosperous, and we'll do our best and I'll do our best to promote all those goals that we post just before this campaign." 2.14 11. SAAKASHVILI'S WIFE SANDRA ROEFOLS LISTENING 2.17 12. SAAKASHVILI AND SANDRA LEAVING PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 2.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TBILISI, GEORGIA
  • Country: Georgia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6SBDAAAA2UUHFW58CE6Q86LCS
  • Story Text: Presidential favourite Mikhail Saakashvili
    claims victory in Georgian elections.


    Mikhail Saakashvili has claimed a crushing win in
    Sunday's (January 4) Georgian presidential vote, vowing
    this final act of his "rose revolution" which toppled
    Eduard Shevardnadze would bring back peace and prosperity
    to the ravaged country.

    Shortly after the polling stations closed, the
    36-year-old U.S.-educated lawyer made his way to a concert
    hall filled with cheering supporters after a huge screen
    lit up with the results of an independent exit poll showing
    he had won 85.8 percent of the vote.

    By far the favourite to win, he was hugged and kissed
    by supporters to shouts of "our new president".

    "I am of course proud, I am proud of my people, the
    level of participation was extremely high, the percentage
    of support that I've got was up to 97 percent which is
    absolutely sensational and frankly I do believe that its
    caused by the absence of any other credible and serious
    candidates in the race, but that's also huge responsibility
    we've got very important mandate from our population to
    clean up the country, to consolidate power here, to make it
    efficient, to make investment-friendly, to make it peaceful
    and prosperous," he said.

    The western-minded Saakashvili now faces a vast array
    of problems in the combustible ex-Soviet state, having
    caught the public's heart with pledges to end corruption,
    combat poverty and restore central control over Georgia's
    restive regions.

    The Black Sea region of Abkhazia boycotted the vote and
    only those areas of wayward South Ossetia controlled by
    Tbilisi voted. In the region of Adzhara, which leader Aslan
    Abashidze runs as a personal fiefdom, turnout was low.

    According to the exit polls, Saakashvili has
    apparently won a sweeping mandate for his policies, though
    officials, who noted that turnout was high across most of
    Georgia, said it was too early to announce results.

    There was little competition from five other
    candidates -- three lawyers, a former regional governor and
    the head of an organisation for the disabled.

    Saakashvili has said his first moves after announcing
    new parliamentary elections and setting up a cabinet would
    be to push for closer integration with Europe and the
    United States, and to launch a drive to eradicate rampant
    corruption.

    The election, called swiftly after former president
    Shevardnadze quit in late November, was under close
    scrutiny by neighbouring Russia and the West, and European
    monitors oversaw proceedings.

    For most voters it was a chance to express their
    hopes for better living standards in a country where half
    of the population live in abject poverty and state finances
    have been sucked dry by a vast shadow economy,
    civil war and separatism.

    Even the white-haired Shevardnadze -- feted in the
    West for his role in ending the Cold War as Soviet foreign
    minister -- backed his former political acolyte who turned
    against him.


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