Zurabishvili 59.7%, Vashadze 40.3%, as 80% of the Precincts Counted

Vote count is under way following the second round of the Presidential polls in Georgia.

According to the data of the Central Election Commission (CEC), with 80.3% of the precincts reporting (2,977 out of 3,705), the ruling party-endorsed candidate Salome Zurabishvili has won 59.7% (911,500 votes) and the UNM-led coalition’s Grigol Vashadze 40.3% (615,376), respectively.

This represents an extremely significant boost for Zurabishvili who got 615,624 votes in the first round of the polls and a disappointing tally for Vashadze, who got 601,188 votes in the first round, and was expected to benefit more from other opposition parties’ voters.

1,975,845 voters cast their ballots in the second round of the polls, as compared to 1,637,956 voters in the first round of the Presidential elections, accounting for 56.23% of the total number of voters (as opposed to 46.74% in the first round) according to the CEC.