The race has begun in Georgia to become mayor of Tbilisi in the May 30th election. For the first time in Georgian history citizens have been granted the right to elect the head of the capital city. During the first years of independence, the mayor of Tbilisi was appointed by the president. Later, the post of mayor became elective, although not by popular vote, but by majority vote in the city's duma (sakrebulo) - usually a member of the ruling party was elected head of the city. Only a year ago president Saakashvili, having been accused of authoritarianism by the opposition, decided to show the democratic character of his presidency and introduced a law on public polls for mayor. This innovation has fundamentally changed Georgia's political system. There was good reason for the Georgian authorities to ignore the persistent calls of the opposition to make the post of Tbilisi mayor elective. In every respect (including electoral roll) Tbilisi comprises half of the country. This way a mayor elected by the
citizens turns into a "second president" - in terms of influence he can compete with the President.
Nowadays no one has any doubt that the winner of the mayoral election will become a top candidate in the presidential polls in January 2013.
This means that the real campaign for the post of mayor (de facto presidential) started on April 26, when the leading party "Unified National Movement" registered its candidate - current mayor Gigi Ugulava. One of the most serious opponents of Ugulava will become ex-representative of Georgia in the UN, leader of "Alliance for Georgia" Iraklii Alasania; "beer king", chairman of the exotically-named party "Industry will save Georgia", Gogi Topadze, and ex-chief of the Tbilisi Komsomol, Georgii Chanturia, a candidate of the moderate opposition Christian Democrats.
Ugulava started his election campaign arriving at a rally of his supporters in a car rented with his party's funds, to avoid charges of using administrative sources. Ugulava made a showy speech under the motto: "There is still much to do". His team in particular has done a lot in the last four years, but there are still unresolved problems in the capital city which have to be solved in the next four years. It is true that during Ugulava's term as mayor the quality of electrical supply greatly improved, public transport (suspended during the early 1990s) was renovated, many modern and beautiful buildings were constructed, parks were designed and the entire city has become cleaner. Ugulava's campaign is planned by professionals and one more aspect demonstrates this - the mayor keeps silent on issues of national politics and he has never mentioned Abkhazia, South Ossetia or Russia in his speeches. He touches upon municipal, social and economic issues: work relief by ease of workflow management for small enterprises; construction of new roads, bridges and overpasses; reconstruction of ramshackle buildings; financial aid to schools and increase of retirement benefit from the city's budget.
Public opinion polls show that Tbilisi citizens appreciate this concept - even those citizens who participated in anti-Saakashvili riots are ready to vote for Ugulava. This irony is evidence of the political talent of Gigi Ugulava - he remains the closest associate of Mikhail Saakashvili, but presents himself as an independent politician.
But who is he, this front-runner of the forthcoming elections and candidate of the ruling party for the next presidential polls? Gigi Ugulava is 35 years old. He is a typical representative of the Georgian politicians who appeared on the Georgian political scene thanks to the "rose revolution" in 2003. In contrast to the revolutions in Ukraine or Kyrgyzstan, the Georgian revolution resulted not just in a change of power, but in the creation of a totally new political elite, which (not least due to its age) had had no ties with the Soviet nomenklatura. Due to this significant difference, the
Georgian revolutionaries held on to power for a much longer period than their Ukrainian counterparts. It is worth mentioning that Gigi Ugulava graduated from the Tbilisi Seminary. Nevertheless, unlike another student of this college - Iosif Dzhugashvili - he always showed adherence to liberal ideas, particularly when working as a journalist then producer at the TV company "Rustavi-2".
In 2005 president Saakashvili proposed him to the post of Tbilisi mayor, which gave the opposition a pretext to criticize the young team of reformers. There is an element of truth in this criticism - before his appointment to the post of mayor, Ugulava did not have experience in the civil service. Nevertheless, he happened to be able to solve more problems than a horde of his forerunners, who had experience of work in posts in the government, Komsomol and economy. It seems that the nomination of such a powerful politician to the second post in the state shows that the governing part is seriously thinking about a "post-Saakashvili era", in order to hold on to power after 2013. Moreover, Saakshvili himself points out that his presidency ends in 2013, and he considers his main priority to be the creation of conditions for future reforms.
Georgii Kalatozishvili. Tbilisi. Exclusively for VK.
