Georgia’s ruling party is leading the crucial election race that could decide the country’s role in Europe.
The Central Election Commission said the ruling Georgian Dream party had won 52.99% of the vote after 97% of the electronic vote was counted. Not all paper ballots and votes cast by Georgians abroad have been counted.
Both Georgian Dream and the opposition blocs trying to end its 12 years in power have portrayed the vote as an existential choice.
After the polls opened Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who set up Georgian Dream and made his fortune in Russia, accused opposition parties of being “an agent of a foreign country that will only fulfil the tasks of a foreign country” – suggesting the West wants Georgia to go to war with Russia.
He also pledged to ban all pro-Western opposition groups if the party wins a constitutional majority.
The pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who has regularly criticised Georgian Dream, said on Thursday she believed most people would vote “despite some instances of intimidation, despite the use of state resources… and the use of financial resources”.
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