Georgia leader defends reputation in election

By Margarita Antidze and Michael Stott

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili will be defending more than just his parliamentary majority in an election this month.

The Georgian leader has staked his future on closer ties with the West and sells his country abroad as a beacon of freedom and liberty in a repressive former Soviet neighborhood.

But after his government tear-gassed and beat protesters last year, closed a critical television station at gunpoint, and won a presidential vote in January amid allegations of fraud, Saakashvili needs to prove his own democratic credentials.

The president is confident he will win a majority of parliament's 150 seats for his ruling United National Movement, whose red and white banners and posters dominate central Tbilisi ahead of the May 21 election.

"We are leading in the polls right now," Saakashvili told Reuters in an interview. "We want to make the elections as clean as we can. We need not only free and fair elections, we need beautiful elections."

But the main opposition bloc, which accuses Saakashvili of stealing the presidency in January's vote, expects more cheating this time.

"The National Movement wants to falsify these elections," said opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze.

"The government is using all its power and the national budget for the vote...If the presidential elections had been free, then Saakashvili wouldn't be president now."