Georgian Elections: Ruling Georgian Dream Party registers victory

In an astounding win, the ruling Georgian Dream Party has been declared victorious in the legislative polls despite the accusations of heavy and rampant vote rigging by the opposition parties. As per the data of the Central Election Commission, Georgian Dream Party received 49.26 percent votes as against the United National Movement, i.e. the opposition which bagged only 26.46 percent. These figures stand for the proportional ballot and will go on to decide the fate of 77 out of 150 seats in the legislature. The polls gave a strong lead to the ruling party.

However, UNM the opposition party have held the government responsible for stealing votes and held a rally in protest of the result in front of the office of the central election commission. Many opposition parties like the Labour Party, Alliance of Patriot and Democratic Georgia also raised concerns about large-scale vote rigging. The percentage of votes so far got may not be reflected in the final number of seats in parliamentary rolls as atleast half will be judged by first-past-the-post basis instead of based on proportional representation.  The country has some of the most complex rules of election and thus the final make-up of the parliament will be clear on by the end of November.

International election monitors will also present their opinion on the verdict on the actual conduct of elections and their outcome. The parties which could not qualify the five percent threshold are highly agitated and may even bring up procedural irregularities in later stages.

Georgian Dream is led by the billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili while UNM is headed by the exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Both parties were running parallel in opinion polls. Election monitors had taken note of the uneven funding which gave an edge to the ruling party and also the political conditions in the country. Many violations during the counting were also reported.