Georgia leader 'faces tough task'
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Saakashvili: Tough realities after the euphoria of the "rose revolution."
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Mikhail Saakashvili celebrates election victory
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TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) -- Mikhail Saakashvili's crushing win in Georgia's presidential vote seems beyond doubt but less certain is whether the fast-talking lawyer could deliver on pledges to bring calm and prosperity to the small Caucasus nation.
Saakashvili, who claimed victory in emotional celebrations late on Sunday, said he hoped to drag the economy from crisis by fighting corruption, encouraging foreign investment and forging closer ties with Western Europe and the United States.
Corruption and separatist conflicts since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 have battered Georgia's economy and infrastructure and deterred investment.
Half of Georgia's 4.5 million population live on less than $4 a day and state finances are bled white by a shadow economy accounting for 60-70 percent of activity.
Analysts say Saakashvili, 36, must act fast to tackle these problems after his inauguration on January 25 or risk losing the overwhelming support he gained in the "rose revolution" that toppled veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in November.
Acting president and Saakashvili ally Nino Burdzhanadze said the new government's first priority would be to crack down on corruption. (Saakashvili landslide predicted)
"For the first step we should really fight against corruption," Burdzhanadze told BBC television on Monday. "Without foreign investment... it will be very difficult to improve the social and economic conditions of the people."
He must also attempt to break a deadlock over Georgia's two breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and put relations back onto an even keel with powerful neighbor Russia.
Relations with the former Soviet colonial master have been troubled by Moscow's charges that Georgia is not doing enough to root out Chechen rebels based in its border lands.
"Saakashvili has inherited a very difficult legacy of course," Archil Gegeshidze, of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters.
"Clearly he has been given a very strong 'carte blanche' from the people but this will not be on offer indefinitely...In October or November the people will be asking Saakashvili what he has done," he said.
Saakashvili has said he hopes to reap the benefits of a U.S.-backed oil pipeline to transport Caspian crude across Georgian territory to the Mediterranean and would promote his nation as a transit country between the Middle East and Europe.
By encouraging investment, he aims to fill the country's coffers but concedes painful cuts will have to be made in the state sector. He also has to tackle a backlog of wage payments.
But he himself has appealed for Georgians to be patient. "Change has to be done day-by-day," he said.
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