Official Preliminary Results: Georgian Dream Leads with 52.99%
Preliminary results released by the Central Election Commission on October 26 put the Georgian Dream party in the lead at 52.99% against a combined total of 38.4% received by opposition parties that crossed the 5% electoral threshold.
The full preliminary results, based on 2,206 precincts which is 97% of precincts that voted electronically (90% of all precincts), show Georgian Dream as a winner.
While all major opposition coalitions that had signed the President’s Georgian Charter passed the threshold, preliminary results show their combined total below 40%. The Coalition for Change, which unites Ahali, Girchi-More Freedom and Droa parties, was the strongest among the opposition with 11.2%, with the Unity to Save Georgia alliance, led by the United National Movement, the former ruling party, finishing with 9.8%. Next comes the Strong Georgia coalition led by Lelo for Georgia with 9.2% and For Georgia led by ex-Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia with 8.2% of the vote. None of the other parties crossed the threshold.
The preliminary results are as follows:
The results can change as the CEC is set to tally up the votes of the remaining 3% of electronic precincts as well as more than 10% of voters who were eligible to cast ballots in traditional voting abroad and in Georgia’s remote and mountainous regions. Final official results are expected to be available on the morning of October 27, after all ballots – both in electronic and non-electronic precincts – have been counted by hand.
394,547 Georgians, 11.24% of all registered voters, were eligible to vote in the traditional, non-electronic procedure. This included 95,910 voters registered abroad, while the rest were registered in remote, mountainous, or smaller precincts where it was inconvenient to install new technology. It is unknown how many of them voted, but images showing huge lines of emigre voters at overseas polling stations made rounds on social media.
Earlier, three different exit polls showed highly conflicting results, leading both the ruling party and opposition to celebrate victory.
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