Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili hopes that voters in Tbilisi’s May 30 mayoral election will not let a pair of pouty lips sway them from voting for the ever-bustling, ever-loyal Mayor Gigi Ugulava.
After giving a televised endorsement for Ugulava on April 26, Saakashvili warned voters not to fall into the honey trap that is Irakli Alasania, the handsome, full-lipped, 36-year-old leader of the moderate opposition bloc Alliance for Georgia and Ugulava’s main rival.
“We can vote for candidates [other than Ugulava], who pout their pretty lips and say ‘Look, I am so pretty,’” the comparatively thin-lipped Saakashvili told Rustavi-2 TV. But if pouty lips matter, the president went on saying, Tbilisi residents might as well elect as mayor Nanka Kalatozishvili, the popular hostess of the Georgian game show equivalent of Fox News' The Moment of Truth.
Even though his lips are a popular topic of discussion, Alasania hasn't sought to capitalize on the one natural advantage he seems to have over his competitors. Rather, he roughly emulates Obama’s presidential election slogans with the think-positive motto “We Will Bring Change.”
Ugulava knows a thing or two about appearances, too. His low-carb weight-loss scheme has long been popular in Tbilisi under the name of the Ugulava Diet.
