Georgia’s ruling party is leading a pivotal election focused on the country’s future path in Europe, according to preliminary results.
The Georgian Dream party of billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili is on 53%, based on a count of more than 70% of the vote, the central election commission says.
The initial results were dramatically different from exit polls conducted by Western pollsters and the head of one of the opposition parties said they believed the vote had been “stolen from the Georgian people”.
“We do not accept the results of these falsified elections,” said Tina Bokuchava, head of the United National Movement.Another opposition leader, Nika Gvaramia, said Georgian Dream had mounted a “constitutional coup”.
Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian ruling party and the four pro-EU opposition groups trying to end its 12 years in power had earlier both claimed victory based on competing exit polls.
Voters turned out in big numbers on Saturday in this South Caucasus state bordering Russia, and there were numerous reports of vote violations and violence outside polling stations.
One opposition official in a town south of the capital Tbilisi told the BBC that he was beaten up first by a local Georgian Dream councillor, and then “another 10 men came and I didn’t know what was happening to me”.
The opposition has described this high-stakes vote as a choice between Europe or Russia. Many saw the vote as the most crucial since Georgians backed
