Saakashvili: Elections are 'Moment of Truth' for Georgia
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 16 Aug.'12 / 13:59

Upcoming parliamentary elections are “moment of truth” for Georgia and “a referendum” for present authorities, President Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili campaigned in the Imereti region on August 14 and met with supporters in several villages of the Terjola and Zestaponi municipalities.

“Each of us should ask ourselves one very simple question – it’s a moment of truth – ‘is Georgia now a better country than it was eight years ago?’ and if the answer is positive and if we want to have even better country we should all stand together – that’s our offer,” he said at one of the campaign meetings in the Imereti region.

At a separate campaign meeting on the same day also in the Imereti region, Saakashvili said that 2003 parliamentary election, which was then followed by the Rose Revolution, was “a referendum about Shevardnadze’s eleven-year rule”.

“2012 election is a referendum for the government, which came into power after the Rose Revolution… If we want our country to be even better we should vote for continuation of the course, which turned Georgia into a better country,” Saakashvili said.

In Imereti President Saakashvili was accompanied by the first lady Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs, who also became involved in the campaign recently, visiting hospitals and making remarks mainly about healthcare issues.

On August 15 Saakashvili campaigned in Rustavi, town close to Tbilisi where Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the opposition Georgian Dream coalition plans to hold an outdoor campaign rally on Sunday.

In Rustavi he participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new highway linking the town with the capital city and said: “We are going to build Georgia for many years.”

Later on the same day he held a meeting with supporters in Rustavi and named Mamuka Chikovani, deputy governor of the Kvemo Kartli region and former mayor of Rustavi, as the ruling party’s majoritarian MP candidate in the Rustavi single-mandate constituency. Zviad Dzidziguri, leader of Conservative Party, will be his rival from the Georgian Dream opposition coalition in the majoritarian contest during the October 1 parliamentary elections.

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