POWER SHIFT IN GEORGIA ELECTION

TBILISI, Georgia - It is a momentous day for Georgian democracy -- but a painful one for the man who has led the former Soviet republic for nearly a decade.
Billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili is set to become Georgia's next prime minister after his coalition's election victory over President Mikheil Saakashvili's party.

  
Opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, right, was quick to claim he had won the popular vote against President Mikheil Saakashvili.

For the first time in the strategically important former Soviet state, power is set to be transferred by free and fair elections instead of revolution. As the results became clear, President Mikheil Saakashvili, a larger-than-life figure who was swept to power in 2003, appeared on national television to accept defeat.

• After summing up the preliminary election results it is evident that the Georgian Dream coalition has achieved the advantage, he said, pledging not to hold up the process.
• But it must be a painful political blow to a man swept to power nine years ago in the popular Rose Revolution.

• Bogged down and damaged by accusations of authoritarianism and human rights abuse, including appalling images that emerged last month of prison inmates being physically and sexually abused in a Georgian jail, his once popular support appears to have slid away.

• Ambitions of Georgian membership into the European Union and the NATO military alliance tormented Russia with whom Georgia fought a brief war in 2008. They may be less of a priority for the new government now.

The prime minister-elect, who will take the reigns of power from Saakashvili next year, is Bidzina Ivanishvili, a controversial 56-year-old billionaire who made his fortune in Russia during the 1990s.With interests in iron ore, banks, pharmaceuticals and real estate, Ivanishvili grew up in Georgia's rural west. He is now estimated by Forbes magazine to be the 153rd richest man in the world, with assets worth more than half of tiny Georgia¹s GDP.

His eccentric tastes include a number of pet penguins he keeps in a private zoo, along with a zebra and other exotic beasts.

Source: CNN