Gori

1 October 2012

A National holiday has been called across the country to enable people to cast their vote.

Tbilisi is unusually quiet except for the horns screeching from the conveys of cars  full of the opposition's supporters. There is a real sense of anticipation around the place as people wait to hear the result. I have sat with some journalists at a central cafe and have been gleaning as much information as I can from their knowledge and insights. The opinions of the local people seem varied and complicated by ethnicity, location and trust in the candidates standing for election. Without a doubt there is a wish for development and a brighter future within Georgia. Which party will be able to deliver is the focus of much debate across the country.

Whist the votes were being counted, I headed to the Stalin museum in Gori (his birth place - in Georgia) in search of more information about this leader and more detail of life under his rule. I did find out more about his journey from Gori church school to his leadership of the USSR, the Yalta conference at the end of war and his death in 1953. ( there is even a copy of his death mask lying in state in the museum). However, the museum still tends to glorify Stalin and is awaiting funding to be able to bring balance to the information; to include more details devoted to the purges, the Gulag and his 1939 pact with Hitler. All in all, it was a long trip for a limited amount of additional information.

At 11.00pm I boarded a night train to the west of Georgia heading towards the mountain area of Sveneti. Candidate 41 is in the lead - the opposition are the favourites....