Mikheil Saakashvili:
Mikheil Saakashvili's election motto "Georgia without Poverty" is a response to domestic criticism that the government has failed to address what is largely perceived as Georgia's top problem - unemployment. The termination of many publicly funded jobs has generated a backlash from those who have lost their jobs - and often -- privileges and property since Saakashvili's advent to power. In response, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze has promised to "humanize" budgetary spending and henceforth focus on social issues. To alleviate the unemployment problem, Saakashvili launched a short-term internship program that provides an opportunity for participants to gain practical skills and, potentially, long-term jobs at a variety of companies. A previous version of the program saw a small number of interns hired, but both then and now the administration has been criticized for strong-arming businesses into cooperation.
Speaking on Rustavi 2 television December 5 ruling party parliamentarian Givi Targamadze said that Saakashvili, if reelected, would make sure that at least one able-bodied member of every Georgian family gets employed, while the elderly and the disabled would receive an allowance sufficient for a decent living. Saakashvili promised to increase minimum pensions to $100 monthly and has pledged to provide low-interest (4-10 percent) long-term state loans to small and medium-size businesses.
A computer giveaway by Saakashvili and the publication of free tickets to an amusement park in Achara have been interpreted by campaign finance monitor Georgian Young Lawyers' Association as an attempt at voter bribery; on December 20 the non-governmental organization petitioned a Tbilisi court to strip Saakashvili and fellow candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili of their candidate registrations.
Levan Gachechiladze:
Winemaker and political maverick, Gachechiladze plans to raise the pay of all state employees above subsistence level, make healthcare universally affordable and increase social benefits to Internally Displaced Persons and the disabled. Gachechiladze's generous social security proposal, however, contrasts with his promise to cut taxes. The businessman-turned-politician also calls for a host of pro-business reforms, including promotion of Georgia's equity market, flat-rate taxes for small and medium businesses and establishment of an independent anti-trust agency.
Davit Gamkrelidze:
Parliamentarian Davit Gamkrelidze says that he will focus on promoting national production and rural development. To breathe new life into the economy, the New Rights leader proposes a "business-incubator" program that would provide free consulting and training for businesses. Gamkrelidze is committed to cutting taxes, minimizing state interference in the economy and cancelling personal income tax for those whose monthly income is under 200 GEL (about $126). His campaign platform pledges that some 40-45 percent of income tax revenue will be used to fund pensions and medical care. His program also envisages state funding of tertiary education, raising the minimum teacher salary to 350 GEL ($220) and providing free medical care to individuals under 14 and over 65. On labor issues, Gamkrelidze has sounded a protectionist note and vowed to "put an end to" outsourcing jobs to migrant workers.
Gia Maisashvili:
Harvard-educated Maisashvili says heÕll be the architect of a ÒGeorgian economic miracleÓ that will be based on a drastic reduction of taxes. Maisashvili thinks Georgia should seek a middle ground between Òsurvival-of-the-fittestÓ-style capitalism and a welfare state; a policy of Òpragmatic liberalism,Ó as he terms is it.
Representing the Saakashvili reforms as more of a facelift than a serious economic overhaul, Maisashvili argues that every step made by the government in the economic sphere should be gauged only by job creation. At the same time, his program says that the ÒgovernmentÕs role is not creation of wealth,Ó but rather development of an institutional and legal environment conducive to wealth accumulation.
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Shalva Natelashvili:
A gung-ho leftist, Shalva Natelashvili plans to mend Georgia's social ills via free education and the nationalization of "illegally" privatized property. "Water, forest, groves, natural resources, the main energy facilities, hospitals...will be returned to the ownership of [the] people..." Natelashvili's presidential program reads. The Labor Party leader also promises to provide "adequate" state allowances to the unemployed and to pay one-time 2,999 lari (about $1,850 )bonuses to newlyweds and to grant families 1,999 lari (about $1,233) for each newborn child. If he wins the presidency, Natelashvili says that emergency and pediatric medical care will be provided for free and that electricity and gas fees will be halved. Apart from restoring many Soviet-era perks, Natelashvili plans to heavily subsidize agriculture and to control prices on products such as flour, bread, and butter. Natelashvili's largesse will come from curtailing spending on defense and the state apparatus.
Badri Patarkatsishvili:
The sheer magnitude of Patarkatsishvili's promised assistance to unemployed Georgians has already prompted one campaign finance monitor, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, to petition a court to cancel his candidate registration for alleged voter bribery. The candidate has pledged to spend $1.5 billion of his own money on a broad-based social welfare program. If elected president, the London-based tycoon promised voters in a December 18 statement published in the pro-opposition newspaper Rezonansi, he would pay 600 lari annually to each unemployed person until a state unemployment program is established. Under Patarkatsishvili, monthly minimum wages would rise to 300 lari (about $188) and pensioners, World War II veterans and new parents would also benefit. Assistance would also be handed out for monthly utility expenses. A second, two-year period would see a corporate income tax holiday and a 20 percent increase in employment, allegedly. Patarkatsishvili has also pledged to end the Russian embargo on imports of Georgian agricultural products, which has put additional economic pressure on population centers outside of Tbilisi.
Irina Sarishvili:
Perhaps Georgia's most changeable politician, Sarishvili contends that the Georgian economy is ruled by the parochial interests of monopolies and apparatchiks. Billed "For the Good of Our Families," Sarishvili's program describes social inequity as one of the seven vices that plague Georgia today. If elected, the leader of the Imedi political movement says that she will pursue a policy of narrowing the yawning gap between Georgia's rich and poor. The "equalization" strategy will target public employees, pensioners, farmers, hired workers, scholars, among others. Sarishvili says that those who cashed in on shotgun sales of state property in the early 1990s will have to compensate the government for the loss. She also pledges to pay for private savings lost in the short-lived commercial banks that mushroomed during that time.
