Georgia’s Saakashvili makes another public joke

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili said Monday at a meeting with judges that he is not going to run for the president at the next election in the country.

Photo: Georgia’s Saakashvili makes another public joke

“This is my last term in the office, and I am not going to run anymore. Of course, I am not going to die after that. Me and my friends, who stay at power, believe that we are leaving many tasks for the nation in addition to major issues connected with the territorial integrity of Georgia and the construction of state institutions,” Interfax quoted the Georgian leader as saying.

Saakashvili stated that he would do everything possible to contribute to the strengthening of Georgia’s state institutions before his presidential term expires. He said that he would particularly continue the reform of judicial power in Georgia.

Saakashvili was reelected as Georgia’s president in January 2008. The presidential term in Georgia lasts for five years. The next presidential election will take place in Georgia in 2013.

Several opposition parties and politicians in Georgia demand Saakashvili be dismissed and new presidential and parliamentary elections be held in the country. The former vice speaker of the Georgian parliament, Nino Burjanadze, Saakashvili’s former ally, is one of them. Burjanadze said that she would most likely run at the next election herself.

Mikhail Saakashvili is known for his political fantasies. The situation is changing all the time, and no one knows what is going to happen in five years, when Saakashvili is going to resign, as he said. Maybe he will decide to stay.

The people of Georgia have changed the political regime in the country three times already. However, the nation’s major problems remained unchanged despite the revolutions: poverty, corruption and defective democracy, not to mention the fact that Washington entirely controls Georgia’s foreign policies. It is not ruled out that the new US administration may wish not to build democracy in Georgia. Mikhail Saakashvili has become a thorn in the side of both European Union and the United States.

AP photo