TBILISI, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said he will not leave politics after his term expires in 2013 and will focus all efforts on strengthening his United National Movement (UNM) party.
“Neither I nor my party would disappear from the Georgian political arena,” Saakashvili told a news conference on Thursday. “I think that the UNM will only grow.”
Saakashvili also denied speculations that he might leave the country after his term is over.
“I was born here, I live here and I will die here. But before I die, I will continue to take action,” the president said, adding that he was ready to continue reforms launched in the wake of the 2003 Rose Revolution.
The UNM was defeated by the Georgian Dream opposition coalition led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili in the country's October 1 parliamentary elections.
Appointed Prime Minister, Ivanishvili and his new Cabinet launched a crackdown on former government officials claiming that Saakashvili and his party had ruined the country during nine years of their rule.
The majority of the president's executive powers will be transferred to the new prime minister under constitutional reforms that take effect in January.
The West, which eyes Georgia as a counterweight for Russia's influence in the region, has called for cooperation between Saakashvili and Ivanishvili while the former is still heading the state.
