Ruling Party Candidate Wins Telavi MP By-Election

A ruling party candidate won an overwhelming majority of votes in Sunday’s majoritarian MP by-election in Telavi constituency, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

According to vote tallies from all 54 polling stations of the Telavi constituency, released by CEC on its website, National Movement’s candidate Vasil Davitashvili, who was head of the Telavi district (gamgebeli) garnered 84.3% of votes, followed by a candidate from Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) Nikoloz Lashkhi with 10.9% and Industrialist party’s candidate Vasil Arabuli with 4.7%.

According to the vote tallies from the polling stations, 35.7% of about 56,900 voters registered in Telavi constituency cast ballot in the Sunday’s polls.

There is no minimum turnout threshold for the polls to be valid.

46.2% of voters turned out at the polling stations in Telavi during the May, 2010 local elections in which the ruling party won up to 72% of votes in Telavi; CDM – 11.8% and the Industrialists party – 5.2%. Those polls were much more competitive with total of nine parties contesting seats in the local municipality of Telavi.