Georgian opposition leader claims victory in parliamentary polls

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the Georgian Dream, has claimed that his opposition coalition would gain at least 100 or possibly even more seats in the new 150-member Parliament as a result of the October 1 elections, civil.ge reports.

“We are winning in all [single-mandate] constituencies, except of Samtskhe-Javakheti [region] and are winning with a large margin. I was saying that we will have at least 50 majority MPs, but now we might even have 60-65 majority [MPs],” he told Channel 9, a television station funded by him.

After initial exit poll results were released immediately after the polling stations were closed at 8pm, giving Georgian Dream lead over the ruling United National Movement (UNM) party in party-list contest, supporters and activists of the Georgian Dream hit the streets in jubilation.

President Saakashvili acknowledged that his ruling UNM party lost in a party-list, proportional race to the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, but claimed victory in most of the 73 single-mandate majority constituencies.

He also said referring to the Georgian Dream: “we should all manage to work together.”

UNM claims victory in at least 53 out of 73 single-mandate constituencies in the provinces, saying that at the expense of winning most of the majority races it will retain majority.