Post-war Georgia to vote in test for president

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TBILISI, May 27 (Reuters): Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday faces his first electoral test since a disastrous war with neighboring Russia in 2008 in nationwide local polls and a vote for the capital's mayor.
Opposition leaders, some of whom have called for closer cooperation with arch foe Russia, want to use the polls to position themselves for presidential runs in 2013 when Saakashvili is due to step down after a decade in power.
"This is the first chance we've had to gauge the level of support that the government has after the 2008 war," said Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group think-tank.
"So the opposition, or the various elements of the opposition, which are myriad, have tried to portray this as a referendum on the present government and its policies."