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Exit Polls Indicate Victory For Ivanishvili Ally In Georgian Presidential Election

October 27, 2013
by RFE/RL's Georgian Service

TBILISI -- Exit polls from Georgia indicate that Giorgi Margvelashvili -- Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's ally-- is on course to win a resounding victory in the presidential election.

Exit polls on October 27 suggested that Margvelashvili, from Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, would win around 67 percent of the vote.

'I thank you all so much. It is our shared victory,' Margvelashvili told cheering supporters at a rally in Tbilisi.

He is well ahead of former parliament speaker Davit Bakradze of President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement party. Exit polls indicated that he would win around 20 percent of the vote.

Bakradze conceded defeat in television comments on October 27.

'I congratulate Giorgi Margvelashvili on his electoral win and the trust expressed in him by the Georgian people,' he said.

Exit polls also suggested former parliament speaker and Rose Revolution figure Nino Burjanadze is set to win around 8 percent of the vote.

The exit polls were conducted by the market research organization GfK and commissioned by Georgian private television station Rustavi2.

Liveblog: The Georgian Presidential Vote As It Happened

Speaking at a press conference on October 27, Kakha Kozhoridze, head of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, said that voting had gone relatively smoothly.

But he also indicated that there were some procedural violations.

'Most of the irregularities are caused by not being familiar with the election laws, rather than deliberate wrongdoing,' he said. 'Concerning the more important irregularities, there were problems with filing complaints. There were some cases where the authorities did not accept these complaints. There was a case at the Krtsanisi polling station where there was a physical confrontation between observers from two different monitoring organizations.'

According to the most recent figures from the election commission, turnout was at 39 percent three hours before polls closed.

Ivanishvili, whose coalition ousted Saakashvili's party from the government in parliamentary elections around one year ago, has said he remains committed to stepping down as prime minister in the weeks after a new president is elected.

The impending exit of Ivanishvilli and Saakashvili makes it hard to tell who will call the shots in Georgia.

The country of 4.5 million people fought and lost a 5-day war with Russia in 2008.

With reporting by AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-presidential- election-margvelashvili-wins/25149811.html

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Exit Polls Indicate Victory For Ivanishvili Ally In Georgian Presidential Election