Georgia’s most powerful man won a parliamentary election on Saturday, according to early official results, but the opposition called on the ruling party to admit defeat and allow the South Caucasus country to move closer to the European Union.
Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to the West or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
Early official results with 70 per cent of precincts counted, showed the ruling party had won 53 per cent of the vote, the electoral commission said, but the deeply divided pro-Western opposition parties said that they had collectively clinched a majority.
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, the ruling party’s reclusive billionaire founder and one-time prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people.
“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 cheering supporters.