Georgia's ruling party wins local elections nationwide

According to RFE/RL, Georgia's ruling party has won the October 3 nationwide municipal elections that outside observers said were well-run but tainted by irregularities -- a victory overshadowed by the arrest of returning former President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose supporters staged protests for his release on October 4.

The October 2 vote was held in a highly polarized atmosphere, with the results seen as a referendum on the Georgian Dream party's rule and the prospect that a bad showing by the ruling party could prompt early parliamentary elections.

Georgian Dream passed the test, with results after all the votes were counted showing that it easily cleared the threshold to avoid an early parliamentary vote under a foreign-brokered agreement to end a long-brewing political crisis between the ruling party and the opposition.

After all results from the country's 3,743 precincts were tallied, the ruling Georgian Dream party had 46.7 percent, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on October 4. The main opposition party, the United National Movement (ENM), had 30.7 percent. The rest of the vote was split among the remaining 48 parties, with the For Georgia party third at 7.8 percent.

The five major mayoral races held on election day -- in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Poti, and Rustavi -- will all head to runoffs after no candidate won an absolute majority, according to early results.

While the ruling party appeared to have scored a convincing victory, the opposition and outside observers alleged numerous irregularities while Saakashvili, the founder of ENM, vowed to continue a hunger strike he reportedly started after his arrest upon return from self-exile in Ukraine.

Waving Georgia's red-and-white flags and chanting Saakashvili's name, hundreds of demonstrators rallied on October 4 outside the prison in Rustavi, southeast of Tbilisi, where the former president has been held since his arrest after returning to the country last week.

Supporters vowed to stage mass protests in the coming days, as his lawyer, quoted by Russia's state-run TASS news agency, said Saakashvili plans to keep up the hunger strike he declared on the evening of his arrest until he is freed.

The U.S. State Department said on October 4 that Washington was paying close attention to developments in Georgia and urged the government in Tbilisi to ensure Saakashvili is treated fairly.