Georgian presidential election, 2008
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Presidential elections were held in Georgia on 5 January 2008, having been brought forward by President Mikheil Saakashvili after the 2007 demonstrations from the original date in autumn 2008.
A referendum on when to hold the legislative elections was held at the same date. On 26 November 2007 the President's office announced that Georgia would hold another simultaneous referendum on NATO membership.
Saakashvili was declared a winner with 53.7% of the votes amid the accusation of electoral fraud by the Georgian opposition. International observers welcomed the elections as "the first genuinely competitive presidential election" in the history of Georgia, and said, albeit irregularities were observed, the polls generally met the democratic standards.
In the earliest pre-election poll held by the weekly Mteli Kvira in November 2007, the opposition candidate Gachechiladze defeated Saakashvili by 2% (18% to 16%).
In December 2007, in a poll commissioned by Saakashvili's party, the BCG company surveyed of 13,000 respondents throughout Georgia showed that 29.5% of voters were still undecided. 36.7% said they would vote for Saakashvili, followed by Gachechiladze with 9.7%; Patarkatsishvili – 4.7%; Gamkrelidze - 3%; Natelashvili – 2.5%; Maisashvili and Sarishvili had less than 1% each. One percent said they would vote for none of the candidates. The survey showed that 63.5% of those who have decided to vote for one of the candidates will vote for Saakashvili, followed by Gachechiladze and Patarkatsishvili with 16.7% and 8.1%, respectively.
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