Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party won 53 percent of the vote in Georgia’s parliamentary elections with 70 percent of polling stations counted, according to official election results, the Central Election Commission reported, Reuters and BTA reported.
According to the spokeswoman of the Georgian CEC, Natya Ioseliani, more than 2.06 million people voted in the elections. However, according to Yoseliani, the data on voter turnout are inconclusive, as it was not possible to obtain information from five polling stations in high-mountain areas, TASS reported.
The spokeswoman for the Georgian CEC also said that “the elections were held in a peaceful and safe” environment. During the 12 hours of voting, the CEC received a total of 337 complaints.
The opposition claimed to have won the election.
Exit polls gave sharply diverging predictions of the vote’s outcome, with one poll predicting the ruling party would win and two other polls showing the opposition would win a majority.
A survey by the “Georgian Dream”-supporting Imedi television shows that the ruling party wins 56%.
But the exit polls of the pro-opposition television channels “Formula” and “Mtavari Archi” showed significant successes for the pro-Western opposition parties, which, according to them, will together form a majority in the 150-seat parliament.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire and leader of the ruling party, declared victory.
“This is a rare case in the world in which the same party achieves such success in such a difficult situation – this is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people,” Ivanishvili said a few minutes after the polling stations closed.
“I assure you that our country will achieve great success in the next four years,” Ivanishvili also said.
The opposition also declared victory and said it was on track to win a majority. The first results are expected to be announced soon, according to Reuters.
Full results should be announced within a few hours.
“European Georgia wins with 52% despite attempts to falsify the elections and without the votes of the diaspora,” President Salomeu Zurabishvili wrote in the X application.
According to the Formula exit poll, the ruling party will be the largest party, but the four main opposition parties will have a total of 83 seats in parliament.
Georgia’s four main opposition blocs are deeply divided and it is unclear whether they will be able to work together if they deprive Georgian Dream of a majority, Reuters notes.
/dir.bg/
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