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TBILISI (Reuters) – The ruling Georgian party failed to win the presidency in a single round of voting when its candidate barely beat her main challenger and was far from the majority, forcing a second turn, revealed Monday the results.
A man holds a child while he is voting in a polling station during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia. REUTERS / David Mdzinarishvili
The ruling party, the Georgian dream party, has long predicted that its candidate Salome Zurabishvili, a former French career diplomat who acquired Georgian citizenship as foreign minister from 2004 to 2005, will win the vote in the first round, Sunday.
But Monday's final results showed with only 38.7% of the vote, one point more than the main opposition alliance candidate, Grigol Vashadze, another former foreign minister. .
The third-place candidate, David Bakradze, who garnered nearly 11% of the vote, announced that he would support Vashadze in the second round, a boost for the opposition, which includes supporters of the opposition. former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Although constitutional changes have reduced the authority of the president to the benefit of a stronger prime minister, the result is a setback for Georgian Dream and its founder, billionaire banker Bidzina Ivanishvili, the man on richer Georgia.
International observers said on Monday that the elections had been competitive, but that they had been held on an "uneven playing field", with misused public resources, private media and dummy candidates.
Although the presidency has been weakened, it is still considered an important position for the image of the country abroad.
Georgia is striving to cultivate close ties with the West in order to counterbalance Russia, which was invaded a decade ago and recognized the independence of two Georgian separatist regions. Moscow also occupies an important place in its domestic politics, the main political factions accusing each other of not resisting Russian influence.
The country of 3.7 million is Washington's strategic ally in the Caucasus region and hopes to join the EU and NATO. Pipelines transporting oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe cross its territory.
Zurabishvili, 66, was born in France to parents of Georgian emigrants. She was ambassador from France to Georgia before becoming Georgian Foreign Minister in 2004. She wants to become the first woman leader of a former Soviet state, except the Baltic country, member of the European Union.
Its supporters say that it would bring international stature to the presidency. But his opponents have accused him of statements that seemed to blame Georgia for the war with Russia in 2008 and comments on minorities considered by some as xenophobic.
His rival Vashadze, a 60-year-old diplomat and businessman, served as Georgia's foreign minister from 2008 to 2012. He secured support from a coalition of opposition groups led by the unified national movement. (UNM) of former President Saakashvili.
Edited by Andrew Osborn and Peter Graff
