Georgia is to hold an early presidential election Saturday, in which former President Mikhail Saakashvili and business tycoon Levan Gachechiladze are frontrunners among the seven candidates in the race.
Saakashvili, born in 1967, graduated from Kiev University International Relations Institute, Department of International Lawin 1992. He continued his studies at Columbia University and George Washington University in the United States and then worked for a New York law firm.
In 1995, Saakashvili returned to Georgia and was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs. In October 2000 he was appointed justice minister but resigned in 2001 in protest over corruption within the government.
Following his resignation, Saakashvili set up his own National Movement Party, which soon became the largest opposition group in Georgia. He was elected leader of Tbilisi city council in June 2002.
Saakashvili was elected as president with a five-year tenure onJan. 4, 2004, but resigned last November in order to run for the early presidential election in January.
Saakashvili speaks fluent Russian, Ukrainian, English and French. He has two children and a Dutch wife, Sandra.
Gachechiladze, born in 1964, will run as a candidate for the nine-party opposition coalition. He graduated from the department of engineering economics of Javakhishvili Tbilisi State Universityin 1986 and then worked at the same department as an assistant.
Gachechiladze was a member of Georgia's national basketball team from 1980 to 1981 and worked as a department head of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism from 1991 to 1993. In 1999, he was elected to parliament and as chairman of the Committee for Economic Policy.
He established and served as the chairman of the opposition party "New Rights" in 2000, but left the party after former President Eduard Shevardnadze stepped down in 2003.
Gachechiladze was the director of the company "Lilo" from 1989 to 1991 and established the Georgian Wines and Spirits Company "GWS" in 1993.
Source: Xinhua
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