Tbilisi/Agency Caucasus – Almost all presidential candidates of Georgia appear to rely heavily for success on Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the two primary elements of their campaign vows while they run for the January 5 elections.
The oath to take over the administrative control of both of the two ‘de facto’ independent countries came from all presidential candidates of Georgia.
Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia, was nominated by the ruling National Unity Movement as the presidential candidate. He vowed during the days of ‘The Revolution of Roses’ in late 2003 when he ran for the presidency to bring both Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under the governmental control of Georgia. He pronounced his same oath of election again before the January 5 presidential elections, with the primary significance attached to it this time.
Levan Gacheciladze, who will stand in the presidential elections as the opposition candidate, promised to develop a peaceful attitude towards the issue at hand as long as he was supported by Russia as well as by the international community to do so. Gacheciladze also stressed the need for the presence of a direct dialogue between Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgi Maisashvili, who is heading the Party of Future, is thinking along the lines of Gachechiladze in stressing the need on the part of Georgia to seek cooperation on friendly terms with Russia before it deals with the question of Abkhazia as well as South Ossetia, because Georgia can achieve to have a dialogue with both Abkhazia and South Ossetia only after it can develop a relationship on friendly terms with Russia.
Shalva Natelashvili, who was fielded by the Labour Party as the presidential candidate, vowed to improve in the first place his country’s relations with both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. His choice of this method for solving the problem in question was similar to that of both Gacheciladze and Maisahvili: Georgia primarily has to improve its relations with Russia and then to seek a way of taking over the governmental control of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. ÖZ/FT
