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According to near-final results announced by the electoral commission, the ruling party Georgian Dream won 53.92 per cent of the vote in Saturday’s election, compared with 37.78 per cent won by a union of pro-Western opposition alliances.
The opposition has said the vote was unfair and has refused to concede defeat to a party it accuses of pro-Kremlin authoritarianism.
Moscow has rejected opposition claims of interference in the vote.
But Salome Zurabishvili – who has a figurehead role in Georgian politics – has declared the announced results “illegitimate” and pointed at the Caucasus country’s former Soviet master.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse, the head of state claimed that “quite sophisticated” fraudulent schemes were used in the weekend vote – with a higher level of planning than the government seemed capable of achieving to stay in power.