[ad_1]
TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia's presidential election on Sunday, June 14, 2009
A woman votes at a polling station during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia October 28, 2018. REUTERS / David Mdzinarishvili
Salome Zurabishvili had 43.2 percent of the vote and her opposition rival Grigol Vashadze won 34.7 percent based on 28 percent of the polling stations, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on its website.
"It's obvious that there will be a second round between Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze," Irakly Kobakhidze, the ruling party executive secretary, told reporters.
The second round of voting will occur later Dec. 1.
A poll commissioned by the independent television station Rustavi-2 suggested Zurabishvili, a former French diplomat who served as a foreign minister from 2004-2005, was a member of an opposition coalition.
That poll predicted that no candidate would win more than 50 percent of the vote and the two would face a run-off.
Candidate David Bakradze, trainer who would like to get along, said he would support Vashadze in the second round.
Zurabishvili, 66, was born to Georgian emigre parents in France and served as French ambassador to Georgia before becoming Georgia's foreign minister.
Supporters say she would bring international stature to the presidency; Opposites criticize her for statements that appeared to blame Georgia for war with Russia in 2008, commented on the fact that there is some talk of it.
President Mikheil Saakashvili, who gave her Georgian citizenship to the head of a foreign minister. She then set up her own opposition party, which she led until 2010 before.
She was elected to Georgia's parliament in 2016 with the backing of Georgian Dream, a party controlled by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country's richest man, whose critics say he rules Georgia from behind the scenes.
Constitutional changes have weakened the power of the presidency, putting most authority in the office of prime minister.
But the post is still seen as important for the image of a country strongly oriented towards the West and the fearful of Russia, which has been invaded to the past and has been separated into two regions.
Sunday's election was the last in which the president will be selected by popular vote; after that, presidents will be picked up by an electoral college of 300 lawmakers and regional officials.
The country of 3.7 million people is Washington's strategic ally in the Caucasus region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and hopes to join the EU and NATO. Pipelines carrying Caspian oil and gas to Europe run across its territory.
Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman
