Presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili hit back at opponents on December 10, saying the government's current emphasis on social issues was possible only because of the reforms carried out by his administration over the last few years.

The opposition had alleged that the government's new social assistance programs and its decision to increase minimum pensions and salaries for teachers was a pre-election PR stunt.

“Some opponents ask - they question everything I say – why do you tackle unemployment only now? Where were you before?” Saakashvili said. “If they really want to know, I'll tell them where I was before. I was constructing roads, because there cannot be real employment without roads. I was restoring electricity supplies, because there cannot be any employment without electricity. I was fighting robbers and criminals, because real business cannot develop where you have robbers and criminals. I was tackling corruption, because with it there cannot be any employment.”

Speaking to voters in Telavi, a town in the eastern region of Kakheti, Saakashvili said that “Georgia without poverty” was his main goal.