Ruling Party to Retain Majority in all Councils

• Ugulava re-elected;
• Five parties to take seats in Tbilisi City Council;
• CDM performs better in provinces, then in capital;

Gigi Ugulava has won a landslide re-election for Tbilisi mayor with 55.2% of votes, according to vote summaries from Tbilisi’s all polling stations.

His closest rival, leader of Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasania, received 19.05%.

A day after the Sunday’s polls, Ugulava’s election campaign banners in the capital city were replaced with new ones reading: “Thank you Tbilisites for support.”

Ugulava, who has been Tbilisi mayor since July, 2005, garnered in Tbilisi significantly more votes, then President Saakashvili did in January 5, 2008 presidential elections. Although winning nationwide, Mikheil Saakashvili lost elections in the capital city to his main rival Levan Gachechiladze, receiving 32.5% of votes.

In proportional, party-list contest President Saakashvili’s ruling National Movement party is also set to win a landslide victory both in Tbilisi and nationwide.

With more than half of the votes for party race for Tbilisi City Council counted, the National Movement leads polls with up to 52%, followed by Alliance for Georgia – 18.8% and Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) – 11.5%.
 
National Council, a coalition of Conservative Party, Party of People and ex-PM Nogaideli’s Movement for Fair Georgia, has garnered about 9% in Tbilisi. Industry Will Save Georgia is also set to clear 4% threshold required for taking proportional seats in Tbilisi City Council.

25 seats are for grab under the party-list, proportional contest in the capital’s City Council. Remaining 25 seats are contested among majoritarian candidates running in Tbilisi’s single-mandate constituencies. Official early results for majoritarian contest suggest that all 25 seats will be taken by the ruling party candidates, meaning that the National Movement will retain a comfortable majority in the Council.

The ruling party is also likely to retrain the majority other 63 municipal councils throughout the country.

With more than half of the nationwide votes counted, the National Movement leads with 62.7%.

CDM has performed better in the provincial constituencies than in the capital city with its nationwide vote standing at 11.9%, followed by Alliance for Georgia – 11.13%.

MP Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of CDM, said on May 31, these local elections were success for his party.

“If any political organization has a firm ground to talk about success, it is us, Christian-Democratic Movement and our political team, which gained the firm first place on the opposition front throughout Georgia,” MP Giorgi Targamadze said. “It means that we have received the second place in all regions.”

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