GEORGIA: President Mikheil Saakashvili says his party likely to win the constituency vote despite the opposition win in the proportional party vote, pleads for unity after the election

Record ID: 643610

  • Title: GEORGIA: President Mikheil Saakashvili says his party likely to win the constituency vote despite the opposition win in the proportional party vote, pleads for unity after the election
  • Date: 3rd October 2012
  • Summary: TBILISI, GEORGIA (OCTOBER 1, 2012) (REUTERS) SAAKASHVILI'S SUPPORTER CHECKING TWITTER FEED
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABNY3WPELGROXH2DRZ8PLTIZ2F
  • Story Text: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling party and an opposition coalition both claimed victory in a parliamentary election in the former Soviet republic on Monday (October 1), raising the prospect of a post-election standoff.
    An exit poll predicted billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's six-party Georgian Dream would win more than half the ballots cast in party-list voting, allocating it 77 of the 150 seats in parliament.
    But Saakashvili's United National Movement said it believed it had won at least 53 of the 73 seats to be allotted in elections in individual constituencies.
    "Dear countrymen, as you all know the absolute majority of our people took part in the parliamentary election. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who came to the polling station and expressed your political will in conditions of absolute freedom, in completely transparent elections as we promised you," Saakashvili said in a televised address.
    "So far the votes are still being counted, and we will need a few more hours to get a full picture. But based on exit polls we can already say the majority in the proportional party vote goes to the opposition, to the Georgian Dream coalition. But in regards to the majoritarian vote in constituencies, the majority went to the United National Movement," he added.
    Any signs of instability would worry the West because of the Caucasus country's role as a conduit for Caspian Sea energy supplies to Europe and its pivotal location between Russia, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia.
    "We are all Georgians, we are all citizens of our country. We all should stand side by side, we all should work together in current democratic conditions," Saakashvili said.
    Saakashvili swept to the presidency after the Rose Revolution of 2003 and led the Caucasus Mountain country into a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008. He says Ivanishvili would move the former Soviet republic away from the West and bring it back into Moscow's orbit.
    Ivanishvili, 56, with a fortune nearly half the size of Georgia's economy, denies this.
    Saakashvili, 44, must step down after a presidential election next year, when reforms weakening the head of state and giving more power to parliament and the prime minister are to take effect.
    If his United National Movement retains dominance of parliament, it may give him a way to remain in charge of the country of 4.5 million, an important gas and oil transit route to the West. If not, Ivanishvili could become premier and Georgia's dominant politician.
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