President’s irony with preparations for elections in progress?

On January 23 Georgia's president promised to keep his post till his powers expire in 2013. "There is no need in calling early presidential and parliamentary elections", - he stated.

He also added: "Nobody must think that I will resign ahead of time as I did in 2007". This is Saakashvili's answer to one of the questions of the people live on Public TV of Georgia.

This address broadcast on January 23 coincided with the inauguration anniversary following last year's victory in the elections. "President of Georgia answers people's questions" special project gathered journalists of two other TV channels: Rustavi-2 and Imedi. It was supposed that people from various regions, intellectuals and journalists would ask questions both inside and outside the studio.

Saakashvili emphasized that the country's population was now concerned about social problems, the consequences of the world economic crisis. As Mikheil Nikolaevich thinks only he and his team are able to cope with all this. He noted that due to their efforts Georgia managed to maintain the financial and banking system stable under crisis. "Our team is a very good team as it has not betrayed its principles. The main thing is no corruption. Every corrupted element of our team was dismissed or penalized. No one will say that the team neglects the people's interests, that we don't protect sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country". - Saakashvili announced.

However he did not give a clear reply whether the country was under crisis or not. He was mostly speaking about the achievements of the Georgian economy: "We managed to preserve stability of the financial and banking system and prevent the lari exchange rate collapse", "New employments will be created"...

Accordingly there are simply no grounds for his early departure. "The president of the United States of America (George Bush - I.P.) was much less popular however nobody thought of his resignation", - it was one of Saakashvili's "smashing arguments".

To be on the safe side he made the following statement concerning his declaration to "New York Times" that if he had been the Georgian opposition he would have overthrown the current government over three months: "To begin with I said it differently. I did not say that I would have overthrown the government; I said would have created the problems for the government. Secondly I was just joking".

In the meantime the radical part of the Georgian opposition is going to offer battle to the authorities this spring and press for president's early resignation.

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