"Georgian Dream” will not be able to get a constitutional majority in the parliament of Georgıa (UPDATED)

The ruling “Georgian Dream” party will not be able to get a constitutional majority in the new parliament, according to the preliminary results of the CEC elections, News Georgia reports.

As of the morning of 27 October, mandates are distributed as follows. (Results based on data from 72 per cent of polling stations):

• "Georgian Dream" - 53%, 88 mandates;
• "Coalition for Change - 11.2%, 19 mandates;
• "Unity" - 9.8%, 16 mandates;
• "Strong Georgia" - 9%, 14 mandates;
• "Gakharia - For Georgia" - 8.2 per cent, 13 mandates.

At least 113 deputies are required for a constitutional majority. "Georgian Dream” was counting on just such support. 

The main pre-election promises of the ruling party implied changing the basic law of the country - recognising the opposition as unconstitutional, enshrining the special status of the church, banning any actions that could be considered as LGBT propaganda, etc.. 

Moreover, 88 votes for the Georgian Dream will not even be enough to impeach President Salome Zurabishvili. This requires two thirds of the mandates, i.e. 100 seats.

The ruling Georgian Dream party lost the elections in Tbilisi and other major cities, but took almost 90% of the votes in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki.

According to preliminary results on the CEC website. (Data from 2255 polling stations out of 3111 were counted) results are lıke thıs:

• "Georgian Dream" - 53.056%;
• "Coalition for Change" - 11.177%;
• "Unity" - 9.852%;
• "Strong Georgia" - 8.998%;
• "Gakharia - For Georgia" - 8.228%.

If we talk about the regions, Georgian Dream did not win the elections in all major cities. These are five out of 74 districts outside Tbilisi.

The ruling party showed the best results in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo-Kartli (Borchali). 

These are regions where ethnic minorities (Armenians and Azerbaijanis) live compactly. The most violations were reported from there.

In Marneuli district, the results at one of the polling stations even had to be cancelled after the fact of mass ballot stuffing.    

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili also indicated a negative trend, stating that "it is shameful and immoral to use an ethnic minority to rig elections".

Eighteen parties took part in the elections. For the first time, 150 members of parliament are elected under a proportional system. Parties need to pass the five per cent threshold to get into the legislature.

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2024-10-26 23:19

uling Georgian Dream party wins parliamentary elections

Georgia's Central Election Commission has processed 70 per cent of ballots from the parliamentary elections held in the country on Saturday on a "proportional" basis. Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party, which has ruled since 2012, won 52.99% of the vote. It may thus have a constitutional opportunity to form a government.

Coalition for Change came in second place with 11.2%; Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement party gained 9.83%; Lelo - 9.02%; For Georgia - 8.22%.

Thus, the opposition pro-European parties collectively garner about 47 per cent of the vote, which prevents them from forming a coalition pro-Western government based on a preliminary agreement with Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who openly supported the "pro-European coalition".

During the day, President Zurabishvili repeatedly wrote on her social media pages about what she perceived as serious voting irregularities and violent incidents at several polling stations, where violent fights took place between opposition observers and "support groups" of the ruling party. The head of state publicly asked the Interior Ministry to "take measures provided for by law" to restore law and order and complained that she could not contact Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri. Salome Zurabishvili expressed concern that special forces of the Interior Ministry are concentrated around the parliament building.

The CEC's official results have perplexed opposition leaders. At 20:00 local time (21:00 Moscow time), just after the polls closed, two sociological services, Edison research and Harrys X, published other exit poll results: about 60-40% in favour of the pro-Western opposition.