05 January 2004	Monday	12 Ziqa'ad 1424

TBILISI, Jan 4: Mikhail Saakashvili won Sunday's Georgian presidential vote by a landslide, according to an independent exit poll. Saakashvili now faces a vast array of problems in the combustible ex-Soviet state, having caught the public's heart with pledges to end corruption, combat poverty and restore central control over Georgia's restive regions.

The exit poll, organised by a group which included the Soros Foundation, the British Council and other international groups, said Sakaashvili had won with 85.8 percent of the vote.

"This is your victory. I have not won the election. You my people, you have won the election," he told reporters after the exit poll was announced. "There are many problems to be resolved but we will rebuild our country together and we will embark on a democratic path."

The result crowns the 36-year-old lawyer's high-risk campaign which began when he led tens of thousands onto the streets in protest against a flawed parliamentary election late last year, forcing an increasingly unpopular Shevardnadze to resign.

"The turnout is unusually high. I am quite amazed how many people showed up," Saakashvili told reporters when he voted in central Tbilisi. "People are longing for a better future." There was little competition from five other candidates - three lawyers, a former regional governor and the head of an organisation for the disabled.

Even white-haired Shevardnadze - once feted in the West for his role in ending the Cold War as Soviet foreign minister - backed his former political acolyte who turned against him.

The election, called swiftly after Shevardnadze quit in November, is under scrutiny by neighbouring Russia and the West. Both are keen to cement their influence in Georgia, a vital link for a major US-backed pipeline that will carry Caspian oil to Western markets from 2005.

It was also a chance for Georgia to prove its democratic credentials after fraud charges during the parliamentary poll. The volatile country was torn by civil war and separatism after the 1991 Soviet collapse and its economy is now in ruin.-Reuters