Saakashvili era ends as Georgia heads for presidential poll Georgia will this weekend bring down the curtain on the era of Mikheil Saakashvili, who led its pro-democracy Rose Revolution a decade ago, with presidential polls on Sunday that could start a new period of uncertainty in the former Soviet republic. Mr Saakashvili's party was defeated in parliamentary elections a year ago by the six-party coalition of the enigmatic billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, as Georgians tired of what many saw as the government's increasingly authoritarian tendencies. The Georgian president has since served the final year of his second term in a turbulent cohabitation with Mr Ivanishvili as premier. Under Georgia's constitution, Mr Saakashvili must now step down. His departure removes what has been a source of constant irritation for Russia, especially since the 2008 war. However, the more pro-Russian Mr Ivanishvili has had only limited success in rebuilding ties with Moscow. Mr Ivanishvili has said he, too, will resign soon after the presidential poll - as he has suggested since his dramatic entry into politics two years ago - and will propose an as yet unnamed successor as premier. "I will step down after I am convinced that nobody can change the course we have chosen and that Georgia will develop in a stable way," Mr Ivanishvili said in a 15-page "open letter" to Georgians last month. It remains unclear whether a successor will manage to hold the fractious Georgian Dream coalition together, or how much backstage influence Mr Ivanishvili, a former oligarch who made his fortune in Russia, may continue to exert. Mr Saakashvili and his officials, meanwhile, say they fear the president could be arrested on politically motivated charges, once he steps down - a move that would carry echoes of the jailing of the former Orange Revolution co-leader Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine. Several senior members of Mr Saakashvili's United National Movement, including a former prime minister, Vano Merabishvili, have been arrested in the past year. Mr Ivanishvili has refused to rule out the possibility that Mr Saakashvili could be, too. Yet Sunday's election seems set to be the most low-key, and democratic, in Georgia's two decades of independence, after a campaign lacking the protests and scandals of previous polls. An overcast Tbilisi was calm on Thursday, with billboards plastered with posters for 23 presidential candidates. The two main contenders contrast with the outsize personalities who have dominated other elections. The favourite, from Mr Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, Giorgi Margvelashvili, 43, is a low-key former university rector with little political experience. The United National Movement candidate is David Bakradze, a 41-year-old former parliament speaker. But the campaign has not been totally without intrigue. Mr Ivanishvili and Mr Margvelashvili have declared the Georgian Dream candidate will not go into a second round vote if he does not secure the 50 per cent needed to win outright in the first round - seen by some observers as a gaffe. Polls show Mr Margvelashvili still short of that figure, though with about twice Mr Bakradze's support. An unexpectedly strong campaign by a third candidate, Nino Burjanadze, another former parliament speaker, has also prompted speculation she might squeeze into second place. Ms Burjanadze has traced an arc from being a Rose revolution co-leader to being viewed by many Georgians as pro-Russian, after she met president Vladimir Putin in the wake of Georgia's 2008 war with Russia, though she denies this. "Many people in this country believe that [Ms Burjanadze] is Russia's favourite person in our politics, so are afraid that if she comes second she will be resurrected as a major political force," said Alexander Rondeli, a veteran political analyst. Sunday's election takes place under new constitutional rules transferring many presidential powers to parliament and turning Georgia into more of a parliamentary republic. But the victor could play an important role in future conflicts or crises - or in attempting to keep Georgian Dream together. That has focused attention on Mr Margvelashvili's status as a relative novice. "He is highly intelligent, but he has no real political experience," says one person who knows him. Ghia Nodia of Tbilisi's Ilia State University suggests Mr Ivanishvili may have chosen Mr Margvelashvili as someone the billionaire believes he can control from the sidelines, along with the new premier. [Ivanishvili] believes he will control government on behalf of society. That is his image," says Mr Nodia. The reality is another question. When you don't have the formal power, however weak the prime minister may be, there is always the danger that he will start to become independent.