Georgia’s leader appears to win election

Georgia’s beleaguered leader appeared to have narrowly won reelection to the presidency in a tightly contested snap vote, elections officials announced late Sunday.

If the preliminary results are borne out, Mikheil Saakashvili will clear an important hurdle in his quest to restore his tarnished reputation. The once wildly popular hero of a pro-Western democratic revolution and market-based reforms was fighting this weekend to win 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Late Sunday, election officials said a preliminary count showed Saakashvili had won 52.8% of the vote. His nearest challenger, wine magnate Levan Gachechiladze, received 27%.

The count had dragged on all day Sunday and into the night while this bitterly divided country waited to hear who among the seven candidates would emerge as president. But even before the votes were tallied, there was little hint of uncertainty in the streets of Tbilisi, the capital.

Saakashvili’s followers began celebrating as soon as the polls closed Saturday -- and a wrathful opposition protested that it had been cheated by rigged elections. Without waiting for the count, the two sides seemed to slip effortlessly into the roles they had long expected to play.

Thousands of anti-Saakashvili demonstrators gathered on the banks of the Kura River on Sunday afternoon. Many of them were elderly people who made their way slowly and carefully over the frozen roadways. They stood shivering on the icy ground as snowflakes flew, coating the cathedrals and bending the pines under their weight.

“Our votes were lost. They falsified the election,” said Dr. Gunala Djanelidze, 65. “Why do you think so many people came out in this horrible weather?”

The protesters insisted that Gachechiladze was the rightful winner and accused Saakashvili of rigging the vote.

“Go away, go away!” they chanted.

Protesters were particularly enraged, they said, by the flashy concert Saakashvili threw just hours after the polls closed. The former president, who had been elected in 2004 and resigned in November after calling an early presidential election, was careful to say he was awaiting official results. But the party had all the trappings of a victory bash. Afterward, his followers careened through the streets with car horns blaring.

In a country where deep suspicion divides the government and its foes, both sides had anxiously awaited the verdict of international election monitors.

In the end, a much-anticipated report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe backed up Saakashvili’s insistence that the elections were free. The foreign observers noted “significant challenges,” but still endorsed the election as fair and representative. The results should be accepted as legitimate, they said.

“In Georgia yesterday, democracy took its triumphant step,” said U.S. Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), a spokesman for the observers.

This was just the endorsement Saakashvili needed to burnish his pro-democracy image. Discontent had been building against him for years, with complaints of cronyism and polarization. Tensions exploded in November when riot police attacked anti-government demonstrators with tear gas and clubs.

Saakashvili, staunchly unapologetic about the beatings and use of tear gas, went on to declare a state of emergency and shut down an opposition television station. Criticism flared around the world as observers wondered whether the U.S.-educated liberal was hardening into an authoritarian ruler. Pelted with condemnations, Saakashvili called the snap election.

In the statement released Sunday, the international observers took a stern tone with both the government and opposition. The group accused the government of blurring the line between state activities and campaign tactics, “contributing to an inequitable campaign environment.”

But the foreign observers also had sharp words for the opposition.

“There were some opposition leaders who already called this election rigged before the whole thing got started,” said Matyas Eorsi, the head of a European monitoring group. “They have a responsibility not to undermine public trust and confidence in constitutional processes.”

At the demonstration, opposition leaders seemed determined to prove their peaceful intentions, calling for calm and restraint. Booming into the microphone, they vowed to take their case to court and said they would look to the international community for support.

“We have long days ahead of us. We will end Saakashvili’s government in the near future,” opposition lawmaker Gia Tortladze told the crowd. “Now we have to be very calm, very peaceful. Every day we will move forward, step by step.”

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megan.stack@latimes.com