Election results start trickling in
By Salome Modebadze
Wednesday, October 3
The Georgian Dream received 54% of the votes, followed by the UNM with 41% from 1,804 precincts out of 3,766, according to the data of the Central Election Commission (CEC) by 6 pm on October 2.
The percentage of the votes changed from hour to hour depending on the new results from the District Election Commissions (DEC) but from 84 DECs, 44 supported the Georgian Dream coalition, 26 the UNM.
The Georgian Dream coalition candidates received the majority of votes at all the 10 DECs of the capital Tbilisi and Batumi while receiving 98% of emigrants' votes, according to the CEC preliminary results.
In several Georgian districts votes for proportional and majoritarian candidates were divided between the main opponents.
Irakli Alasania, the Georgian Dream coalition’s candidate in Zugdidi, received 37.2% while his opponent from the UNM, Roland Akhalaia – 55.9%. But coalition member Davit Saganelidze found this fact doubtful, adding that if some facts about this DEC will be proved, the elections in Zugdidi will be annulled. He said similar problems occurred in the DECs of Kvareli, Keda, Tskaltubo and Dedoplistskaro where the UNM majoritarian candidates have succeeded.
According to the preliminary results, UNM majoritarians received the majority of votes at DECs in Sagarejo, Gurjaani, Dedoplistskaro, Lagodekhi, Kvareli, Signagi, Gardabani, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Dmanisi, Tsalka, Tetritskaro, Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkkalaki, Khashuri, Adigeni, Ambrolauri, Tsageri, Lentekhi, Bagdati, Vani, Khoni, Tskaltubo, Abasha, Senaki, Martvili, Khobi, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Chkhorotsku, Keda, Shuakhevi, and Khulo; the rest DECs voted for the coalition.
Despite the UNM’s success in Sagarejo, Kakheti region, Georgian Dream’s majoritarian candidate Tina Khidasheli received the majority of the votes while despite the UNM candidate Zaza Kedelashvili’s success at Dedoplistskaro, the UNM received over 3% less votes from the voters than the Georgian Dream like in Gardabani, Bagdati, and Signagi.
CEC spokesperson Eka Azarashvili said at a special briefing that the process of counting ballots was suspended at Gori majoritarian DEC #4 and # 9 due to criminal violations. Azarashvili said several PECs of Kvareli and Khashuri also remain problematic.
Although Azarashvili encouraged everyone to avoid forecasting the election results, Saganelidze said with “optimistic” calculations the Georgian Dream will receive 97% of seats in parliament but with “pessimistic” calculations over 90-91. He said the CEC is publishing the results slowly to create a sense that the difference between the two main opponents is small, but the coalition member said that after revealing the full data the difference will radically increase on behalf of the Georgian Dream.
According to the parallel voting results of the Voters’ League, the Georgian Dream received 63%, and the UNM – 33% at 587 precincts. The Leagues’ results showed that the coalition’s majoritarian candidate at Dedoplistskaro, Alexander Tamazashvili, received 3% more votes than UNM’s Kedelashvili unlike the CEC data. A similar situation exists in the Bolnisi DEC.
In the final data of Transparency International Georgia’s parallel results, the Georgian Dream had 55% and the UNM – 39% from 300 precincts. Discouraging violations at Khashuri district, TI Georgia’s Executive Director Eka Gigauri said the special task groups at several precincts changed the final records and called the Georgian government to investigate the violations of the Election Day.