Georgia's ruling party wins election over pro-EU opposition

Georgia's ruling party has won the country's general election, beating its pro-EU and pro-Western opposition.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been in power for 12 years, had won 54% of the vote with more than 99% of precincts counted.

Both Georgian Dream and the opposition blocs trying to end its time in power portrayed the vote as an existential choice between moving towards the West - potentially by joining the European Union - or tightening ties with its regionally-dominant neighbour, Russia.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream and a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, has accused opposition parties of being "an agent of a foreign country that will only fulfil the tasks of a foreign country" - suggesting the West wants Georgia to go to war with Russia.

He also pledged to ban all pro-Western opposition groups if the party won a constitutional majority.

Mr Ivanishvili claimed victory almost immediately after polls closed, saying it was "rare in the world for the same party to achieve such success in such a difficult situation".

But the pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who has regularly criticised Georgian Dream, was among the opposition leaders who also claimed victory when competing exit polls were released, with some putting the opposition ahead.

Ms Zourabichvili earlier wrote on X that her bloc, European Georgia, had taken 52%, despite what she called "attempts to rig elections".

Pictures were also published of opposition leaders celebrating, confirming their early confidence.

There were reports of voting irregularities, and a video shared on social media on Saturday showed a man stuffing ballots into a box at a polling station in Marneuli.

Georgia's Interior Ministry said it launched an investigation and the CEC said a criminal case had been opened and that all results from the polling station would be declared invalid.

Sky News' international correspondent John Sparks, in the capital Tbilisi, called it a "stunning result" and predicted many Georgians would find it "unbelievable", as after 12 years in power, a change of government had been widely expected.

The result spells a striking defeat for Ms Zourabichvili, a French emigre, who had made her number one priority "restarting talks with the European Union", Sparks said, while Mr Ivanishvili has moved his party "from being expressly pro-Western to an organisation that is more in line with Russia".

Brussels suspended the country's membership process after Georgian Dream passed laws restricting freedom of speech in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people.

The biggest opposition party, United National Movement, said its headquarters came under attack on polling day.

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Georgian media also reported two people were taken to hospital after being attacked outside polling stations, one in the city of Zugdidi, the other in Marneuli, a town south of Tbilisi.

Protests have been taking place across the country after the result, with leading opposition figures, including the country's president Salome Zourabishvili, calling on supporters to take to the streets.

(c) Sky News 2024: Georgia's ruling party wins election over pro-EU opposition