A day before MP by-election in Telavi constituency in eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, President Saakashvili visited that town on Saturday to personally endorse the ruling party’s candidate in Sunday’s polls.

Ruling party’s candidate in the Sunday’s MP by-election in Telavi, Vasil Davitashvili, is contesting a vacant seat in the Parliament with two other candidates – Christian-Democratic Movement’s Nikoloz Lashkhi and Industrialist party’s Vasil Arabuli.

In the May, 2010 local elections the ruling party garnered up to 72% of votes in Telavi.

A majoritarian seat from Telavi constituency became vacant in the Parliament after Gia Arsenishvili, a ruling party lawmaker, who chaired parliamentary committee for human rights, died of heart attack in November 2010.

At an indoor meeting with supporters in Telavi, President Saakashvili praised locals for not turning against the government in 2006 after Russia imposed embargo on the Georgian wine, suggesting that it was done by Moscow as it wrongly thought the move would have prompted protests against the authorities by locals in Kakheti, home to over 60% of Georgian vineyards.

At the meeting Saakashvili pledged round-the-clock supply of potable water in Telavi by 2013; “top quality roads” in each and every village of the Telavi district and turning the town into a genuine cultural, tourism and economic center of the entire Kakheti region.