Ruling party leads Georgian parliamentary election: early results
Source: Xinhua-AFP Published: 2020/11/1 20:23:41
Early results from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed on Sunday that the ruling Georgian Dream party took the lead with 48.58 percent of votes in the Georgian parliamentary election.
The results were based on 2,668 counted election precincts out of the total 3,847 election precincts.
Georgia on Saturday kicked off the parliamentary elections to elect the country's 150-member top legislative body for the next four years.
A total of 48 political parties and two party blocs have registered to run for the parliamentary seats. Any party which garners more than 1 percent of the ballots will be allocated seats in proportion to their shares of votes, according to the CEC.
According to Georgia's constitutional amendments, which were passed in June, the parliamentary poll in 2020 should be held under a mixed electoral system, with 120 members of parliament to be elected via party lists and the remaining 30 running in single-member majoritarian districts.
An election bloc or party which receives less than 40.54 percent of all votes in the proportional elections will not be able to form a government.
The ruling Georgian Dream party previously won the parliamentary poll in 2012 and 2016, after defeating the United National Movement in the elections.
With votes from more than 72 percent of precincts counted, the Georgian Dream led the opposition by 48.5 percent to 45 percent in a proportional ballot that will decide 120 of the 150 seats in the legislature, the Central Election Commission said.
The ruling party's leader, billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, said his party "has won elections for the third time in a row."
"Georgians have elected a great team," he added.
But opposition leader, exiled former president Mikhail Saakashvili, said Georgian Dream "is massively falsifying election results" and announced a "mass mobilisation [of supporters] to defend the votes." In an unprecedented show of unity months ahead of the vote, Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and smaller opposition groups joined forces to challenge the ruling party.
Newspaper headline: Georgia ruling party claims election win
Georgia held a parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia on Saturday. Photo: VCG
The Georgian Dream party was followed by the major opposition United National Movement party, which got 26.07 percent of counted votes, according to data released by the CEC on Sunday morning.The results were based on 2,668 counted election precincts out of the total 3,847 election precincts.
Georgia on Saturday kicked off the parliamentary elections to elect the country's 150-member top legislative body for the next four years.
A total of 48 political parties and two party blocs have registered to run for the parliamentary seats. Any party which garners more than 1 percent of the ballots will be allocated seats in proportion to their shares of votes, according to the CEC.
According to Georgia's constitutional amendments, which were passed in June, the parliamentary poll in 2020 should be held under a mixed electoral system, with 120 members of parliament to be elected via party lists and the remaining 30 running in single-member majoritarian districts.
An election bloc or party which receives less than 40.54 percent of all votes in the proportional elections will not be able to form a government.
The ruling Georgian Dream party previously won the parliamentary poll in 2012 and 2016, after defeating the United National Movement in the elections.
With votes from more than 72 percent of precincts counted, the Georgian Dream led the opposition by 48.5 percent to 45 percent in a proportional ballot that will decide 120 of the 150 seats in the legislature, the Central Election Commission said.
The ruling party's leader, billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, said his party "has won elections for the third time in a row."
"Georgians have elected a great team," he added.
But opposition leader, exiled former president Mikhail Saakashvili, said Georgian Dream "is massively falsifying election results" and announced a "mass mobilisation [of supporters] to defend the votes." In an unprecedented show of unity months ahead of the vote, Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and smaller opposition groups joined forces to challenge the ruling party.
Newspaper headline: Georgia ruling party claims election win
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