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“We will continue to demand the annulment of the results,” it said.
Rival exit polls gave sharply different projections for the election: the Georgian Dream-supporting Imedi TV channel showed the ruling party winning 56 per cent. Exit polls by the pro-opposition channels showed major gains for the opposition parties.
Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s reclusive billionaire founder and one-time prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people.
Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station.Credit: AP
“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 supporters.
Though Georgian Dream lost out to the combined opposition in parts of the capital, Tbilisi, it won margins of up to 90 per cent in some rural areas.
The Georgian opposition initially 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.
Party representatives said they would be analysing the results in the coming hours, but stopped short for the moment of alleging any falsifications.
Nika Gvaramia, right, leader of Coalition for Changes, described the result as “a constitutional coup”.Credit: AP
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 October 20 voted by a very slim majority to support EU accession.
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Russia had repeatedly signalled it wanted Georgian Dream to win, while accusing Western countries of undue interference in Georgian politics.
“The Georgians won. Well done!” said Margarita Simonyan, the editor of Russian state media outlet RT, which the US has accused of trying to influence its own presidential election. There was no immediate comment from the EU.
Georgia was once one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse. The road leading from Tbilisi’s airport is named after former US President George W. Bush.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tbilisi’s relations with the West have taken a sharp downward turn. Unlike many Western allies, Georgia declined to impose sanctions on Moscow, while Georgian Dream’s rhetoric has become increasingly pro-Russian.
A supporter of the Coalition for Change holds aloft a Georgian flag after polls closed in Tbilisi.Credit: AP
Georgian Dream has drawn the ire of its Western allies for what they cast as an increasingly authoritarian bent, and had campaigned hard on keeping Georgia out of the war in Ukraine, with campaign billboards contrasting pristine Georgian cities with devastated Ukrainian ones.
Sandro Dvalishvili, a 23-year-old Georgian Dream activist, said last week that Georgia would face “danger” if his party of choice was defeated at the polls.
“If it turns out that we don’t win, for me that’ll be very bad. Because I don’t see another force that will bring peace and stability to our country”, he said.
Reuters
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