Georgia's ruling party wins pivotal election, preliminary results show
According to REUTERS, Georgia's most powerful man won a parliamentary election on Saturday, according to early official results, but the opposition called on the ruling party to admit defeat and allow the South Caucasus country to move closer to the European Union.
Georgian Dream's billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to the West or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
Early official results with 70% of precincts counted, showed the ruling party had won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said, but the deeply divided pro-Western opposition parties said that they had collectively clinched a majority.
Rival exit polls gave sharply different projections for the election: The Georgian Dream-supporting Imedi TV channel showed the ruling party winning 56%. Exit polls by the pro-opposition channels showed major gains for the opposition parties.
Ivanishvili, the ruling party's reclusive billionaire founder and onetime prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people.
"It is a rare case in the world that the same party achieves such success in such a difficult situation - this is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people," Ivanishvili told cheering supporters.
The Georgian opposition also celebrated victory and some monitors reported election violations. But a parallel count operated by one of the opposition parties showed Georgian Dream in a strong position to win a majority.
Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, came to power in 2012 advocating pro-Western views, alongside a pragmatic policy towards Russia.
He has since soured on the West, accusing a "Global War Party" of seeking to drag Georgia into war with Russia, even as he insists Georgia is on course to join the EU.
If victory for Ivanishvili's party is confirmed, it would be a blow to the EU's hopes of bringing more former Soviet republics into its orbit. Moldova on Oct. 20 voted by a very slim majority to support EU accession.
