TBILISI, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Georgia's opposition coalition has easily won Monday's parliamentary election, according to a research company's final exit poll.
Imedi and Rustavi2 television channels, which jointly commissioned U.S.-based Edison Research to conduct exit poll, said billionaire-led Georgian Dream garnered 50 percent of votes while the ruling United National Movement party took 41 percent.
Germany-based GfK company's exit poll indicated only one of the 13 opposition parties, the Christian Democratic Movement party, cleared the 5-percent threshold for proportional ballots that will decide 77 of the 150 parliamentary seats.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) is scheduled to announce the final result on Oct. 20 but will release early official results late Tuesday.
The CEC said this year's parliamentary elections had a turnout of 60.8 percent among the 3,613,851 registered voters, compared with 53.9 percent in the 2008 legislative election.
Voters at home and abroad voted to elect 73 members in single-seat constituencies on the basis of who won the most votes in each seat, and a further 77 on the basis of proportional representation, under which parties passing the 5 percent threshold are awarded seats in proportion to their share of the total vote.
Previously, elections for the 150-seat unicameral legislature of Georgia were split evenly between single seat consituencies and proportional representation. The government and opposition parties agreed to adjust the share this year.
A total of 1,641 foreign observers representing 61 CEC-registered international institutions monitored the election along with 62,115 local observers from the South Caucasus country.
In all, 3,295 domestic and internatinal media personnel were registered by the CEC to cover Monday's voting, which was conducted in 3,719 polling stations throughout the country.
TBILISI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- All the polling stations in Georgia are now ready for Monday's parliamentary elections, the country's election chief said Friday.
Zurab Kharatishvili, chairman of the Central Election Commission, said that all the 3,719 polling stations in the 73 constituencies had been equipped with necessary equipment. Full story
TBILISI, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania are scheduled to arrive in Tbilisi Monday for a joint visit in the tune-up toward Georgia's Oct.1 parliamentary elections.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze told a routine weekly briefing that the five European Union country foreign ministers are to start their visit by discussing bilateral ties with their Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze. Full story
TBILISI, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Georgia on Friday announced the formation of a special task force to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections in the South Caucasus country in October.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for Free and Fair Elections (IATF) is headed by Giga Bokeria, secretary of the Georgian National Security Council. The task force also consists of representatives from the Georgian interior ministry, justice ministry, regional development ministry, finance ministry and foreign ministry. Full story
TBILISI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Georgian Foreign Ministry on Saturday sent out invitations to international observers of the country's October parliamentary elections.
Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze sent out invitations to the parliamentary assembly of GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, a regional bloc which groups Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldov. Full story
WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department on Monday rejected the parliamentary elections held in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, urging Russia to fulfill its obligations under the cease-fire agreement.
"The United States does not recognize their legitimacy," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner at a briefing, referring to the parliamentary elections held in Abkhazia on Saturday. Full story
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