Government support still rock-solid in Georgian heartland

May 21, 2008, 9:15 GMT

Borjomi, Georgia - The former Soviet Republic of Georgia faces its most unpredictable parliamentary election yet on Wednesday, and deeply loyal support in the Georgian heartland just might pull embattled President Mikhail Saakashvili's fat out of the fire.

Two solid opposition parties - one anti-Saakashvili and one headed by a respected television journalist - are pitching to the Georgian public: a national government not dominated by Saakashvili's sometimes overwhelming personality, and a return to voters of billions of dollars of national wealth supposedly stolen by Saakashvili's friends and relatives.

The united opposition led by Levan Gachechiladze has been arguing that Saakashvili's decision to launch a police assault on opposition demonstrators in January was a pure police-state tactic that must be punished on election day.

The latest poll numbers are mixed on whether Saakashvili's party even can retain a majority once the ballots are counted.

Misha, as the canny Georgian president is known to friends and enemies alike, may still have a card up his sleeve: the strong and at times almost unconditional support of Georgia's heartland, in the villages and towns far outside the country's charming capital, Tbilisi.

'We in the town of Borjomi do not have so much, and we are far away from the centre,' explained Nuchkey Totichashvili, an energy- industry analyst.

'But we understand that the government is working, and that we cannot build a perfect country in a day. And at the present time, for almost all of us, there is no one better to run the country than Misha.'

Borjomi is a fairly typical Georgian provincial town, set in a striking valley of the Caucasus foothills, surrounded by evergreens and with the Kura River running along the highway back to the capital, some two hours away by very bumpy hardtop. Saakashvili's government has initiated an ambitious campaign to extend modern roads into the interior.

Home to some 2,000 residents, Borjomi has a single modern industry in a mineral water of the same name, marketed across the former Soviet Union, which employs only a few dozen Borjomites. Mostly, people operate small shops or are unemployed.

The mayor drives a 1990s Nissan four-wheeler. As in many post- Soviet towns with stalled economies, sidewalks are pitted and on a weekday lined with women hawking local produce. Many working-age men seem to have too much time on their hands.

'There are no tourists, so we are bums right now,' cabbie Vladimir Gorjinadze said. 'So I spend most of the day here talking with my mates.'

Yet Gorjinadze and every other Borjomi citizen approached by a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter answered the same way when asked about the political opposition.

'No way!' Gorjinadze responded. 'We all support the government here. We know things are not perfect, but compared to what was here before, it is like night and day. There have been many changes for the better, and everyone can feel them.'

The claim was made against the background of spectacular mountain scenery, in the middle of a spotless Tsarist-era park equipped with Soviet-era amusement rides, and even a Ferris wheel on a mountaintop with a cable car to get you there - and all of it stationary for lack of customers.

Borjomi during the Soviet-era was a tourist magnet for its stunning views and purportedly healing mineral waters.

The break-up of the Soviet Union killed Borjomi's tourist industry. And yet - in direct contrast to the unabashed hatred toward central governments seen in towns in Ukraine or Russia that once thrived under the Soviet Union - on Tuesday in Borjomi it was practically impossible to find the same post-Soviet complaints.

'We have hope for the future, and everything beyond that is work,' said Nino Tsingashvili, 17, as she chatted with a girlfriend on a park bench after classes. 'And our president, well, I think he is helping us get there.'

'The thing to remember is, during the 1990s, this place was crawling with mobsters, racket was everywhere, and people were shot,' Totitashvili said. 'Misha put them all in jail, ... and now honest people can work for themselves, take out a loan from a bank if they need to.'

All of which may explain Saakashvili's confidence and his rejection of opposition claims that he uses his office to score votes, during a meeting Monday with a small group of foreign reporters.

'Have we used abused our power?' asked Saakashvili. 'Well, certainly - if you call building roads and schools, stopping corruption, increasing national GDP by a factor of three abuse of power. We have not been sitting still in the government. We have been working - and people see this.'