"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Saakashvili touts Georgian 'miracle,' opposition cries foul

TBILISI-Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili urged voters to reaffirm their country's democratic path in a snap presidential election as the opposition accused him of rigging Saturday's poll.Saakashvili told 20,000 flag-waving supporters on the eve of voting that they should re-elect him as head of the strategic ex-Soviet republic to "show the whole world that Georgian democracy is still alive."He told journalists later that in his four years since taking power in the 2003 Rose Revolution,a"miraculous transformation" had made Georgia a "beacon of democracy, a beacon of economic success." Hundreds of international election monitors have swarmed into Georgia and their judgement will likely be important in determining the future of Saakashvili's drive to build closer ties with NATO and the European Union.But the opposition said the vote-called a year early in response to violent unrest this November-had been falsified in advance. They vowed to stage street protests.Opposition candidates said media bias in favour of Saakashvili and the use of state resources to support his campaign made a fair contest impossible."If these kinds of things continue, and I am 100 percent sure that this is continuing, then we can't recognize" the election, leading challenger Levan Gachechiladze told journalists after meeting with European observers.Gachechiladze said Saakashvili was planning to use "non-legal and bad exit polls" to claim victory and promised to "continue protests and everything under the constitution" to oppose him.Authorities insisted that the election Saturday would be conducted fairly."These are the first elections (in Georgia) conducted in a real competitive situation," David Bakradze, Saakashvili's campaign manager and a government minister, told journalists.He said the opposition was mounting "a campaign to discredit the election and to create the perception" that it was unfair."If Saakashvili wins, they'll say 'it was not free and fair, it was rigged and that's why we lost,'" he said.Two other opposition candidates also threatened Friday not to recognize the vote.David Gamkrelidze of the conservative New Rights party said Saakashvili did not have enough support to overcome the 50 percent threshold required to avoid a run-off vote in two weeks' time."If he decided to manipulate the results and win in the first round, I think it will be quite difficult to accept and recognize the results," Gamkrelidze told journalists."It was not a just election so we won't recognize the results. He won't have any legitimacy from us," opposition candidate Giorgi Maisashvili also told journalists.Saakashvili called the snap poll after clashes between police and anti-government protesters on November 7 and the imposition of a state of emergency that lasted nine days.The crackdown appalled many Georgians, who had backed Saakashvili's 2003 pro-democracy Rose Revolution, and also alarmed his allies in Europe and the United States.Polls commissioned by the seven candidates in Saturday's contest offer conflicting data.But most analysts believe Saakashvili, a multilingual, US-trained lawyer, is well ahead of his nearest rival, Gachechiladze, a wine entrepreneur and lawmaker.Georgians are holding a parallel referendum on whether they want to join NATO.They are expected to register a resounding "yes," in a rebuke to former ruler Russia which has imposed economic sanctions on Georgia and supports two separatist enclaves in the north of the country.

As in the days of Noah.....