Tbilisi, Oct 27: The people of the impoverished and chaotic Caucasus state of Georgia will vote this week in a parliamentary election which is widely viewed as a dress rehearsal for a crucial presidential poll in two years' time. Opinion polls suggest that voters will give a damning verdict on the government of President Eduard Shevardnadze, which they blame for mismanaging the country, but there also fears the authorities are preparing to rig the November 2 ballot to limit the scale of their drubbing.

"The pro-government party's rating is as low as you can imagine," said Ghia Nodia, a political analyst. "If the opposition does not win convincingly it puts in question whether it is possible in Georgia" to have fair elections. Georgia, a former Soviet Republic of about five million people, holds strategic importance for the west because it is soon to become a crossroads for crude oil exports from the Caspian Sea.

The country lies on the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is being built by a consortium of western oil majors with backing from the administration of us President George W Bush.

Relations with Russia, its neighbour to the north are atrocious. Large tracts of the country are terrorised by armed bandits separatists control two chunks of territory and on two occasions President Shevardnadze has been lucky to survive assassination attempts. Bureau Report