[ad_1]
The highly contested presidential elections in Georgia are in the background after no candidates were won in the first round, which could spell the end of the ruling party's reign, the results revealed on Monday.
This is the last direct presidential election in Western Georgia, with the former Soviet republic becoming a form of parliamentary governance.
The new head of state will be an essentially ceremonial figure.
A second round will be held no later than December 2, announced the electoral commission.
The candidate supported by the ruling party, former French national Salome Zurabishvili, was considered the favorite of Sunday's race but did not win 50 percent plus one vote to be declared the winner.
Analysts said the result of the vote would radically change the Georgian political landscape, marking the likely end of the reign of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's party, the "Georgian Dream".
Zurabishvili, 66, led the race with 38.64% of the vote, against 37.74% for opposition leader Grigol Vashadze, the electoral commission said.
Vashadze, 60, is supported by the Unified National Movement (UNM) of former president Mikheil Saakashvili and 10 other groups.
Opposition parties of about 4 million people in the country were to support Vashadze in the second round, thus forming a united opposition front against the ruling party, the Georgian dream.
Opposition candidate and former President of the Parliament David Bakradze of the European Georgia Party, who came in third with almost 11% of the vote, endorsed Vashadze, increasing his chances of victory in the second round.
The Republican Party and other opposition forces also had to close the ranks behind Vashadze.
The official participation rate reached nearly 47% Sunday.
– & # 39; End of the single party rule & # 39; –
"The results of the first round mean that Georgians have said a" no "firm to the one-party political system," AFP analyst Gela Vasadze told AFP.
"The era of the single party regime in Georgia is now over and it is the end of the dominance of the Georgian dream," he added.
Observers view the presidential election as a test for the struggle between the ruling party and the opposition in larger parliamentary polls, which are currently scheduled for 2020.
"Vashadze's victory in the presidential election – which now seems likely enough – will be a tremendous boost for the opposition in the legislative elections," said political analyst Ghia Nodia.
Vashadze promised to campaign for a quick parliamentary vote when he is elected.
Zurabishvili, an elegant independent MP and former ambassador of France, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 to Paris after the annexation of that country by the Red Army.
His career abroad led to an assignment in Tbilisi.
Saakashvili, then president, appointed her foreign minister, with the approval of the then French president, Jacques Chirac.
But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies of the parliamentary majority, deputies and senior diplomats publicly accusing him of arrogance and impulsivity.
She was fired after a year of work, although thousands of people took to the streets to protest her dismissal.
She then joined the opposition and became one of Saakashvili's fiercest critics.
– "oligarch rule" & # 39; –
Its main rival, Vashadze, has been stimulated by growing popular discontent over the government's inability to fight poverty.
During the campaign, Vashadze criticized the "informal government of oligarchs" Ivanishvili, the billionaire leader of the ruling party.
Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, stepped down as prime minister in 2013 after only one year in office, but it is widely acknowledged that he is still the country's de facto leader.
Vashadze is a respected career diplomat who worked at the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union, where he helped draft the US-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START I.
He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saakashvili from 2008 to 2012.
Vashadze is married to the famous ballerina Nina Ananiashvili.
Both candidates vowed to lead Georgia – which led a five-day war with Russia in 2008 – to move closer to full membership in the European Union and NATO .
The elections were attended by international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
From 2024, the new head of state will be elected by an electoral college of 300 members.
Salomé Zourabichvili, former French ambassador and former foreign minister of Georgia, was the favorite of Sunday's elections, but failed to win and is now facing a difficult battle.
Grigol Vashadze, a respected career diplomat at the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union, could win a victory if the opposition parties united behind his candidacy.
Observers consider the presidential election as a trial for the struggle between the ruling party and the opposition in larger parliamentary polls, which are currently scheduled for 2020
