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Zurabishvili Poised To Win Georgia's Presidential Runoff

By RFE/RL's Georgian Service November 28, 2018

TBILISI -- Georgia's ruling party candidate, Salome Zurabishvili, is poised to win the presidential runoff in the South Caucasus country, preliminary results showed, even as the opposition called for protests over alleged fraud.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said French-born Zurabishvili, who has the backing of billionaire former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's ruling Georgian Dream party, won about 60 percent of the November 28 vote, based on results from 75 percent of the polling stations.

Grigol Vashadze, the candidate supported by opposition groups led by the United National Movement founded by ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, got 40.5 percent, the CEC said on its website.

A Gallup exit poll suggested Zurabishvili would win with 58 percent of the vote compared to 42 percent for Vashadze. Another exit poll, conducted by U.S. firm Edison Research, showed Zurabishvili with 55 percent, while Vashadze received 45 percent.

Zurabishvili claimed victory after the exit polls were announced, thanking voters for making the "right and principled choice."

Vashadze refused to concede defeat, saying he would wait for full preliminary results, which are expected on November 29.

Soon after exit polls were announced, Saakashvili claimed "mass electoral fraud" in an address on the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel.

"I urge Georgians to defend our freedom, democracy, and the law. I call on you to start mass peaceful rallies and demand snap parliamentary polls," he said.

Opposition groups claimed there had been various voting irregularities.

Transparency International Georgia said there were potential violations, including the presence of party members at polling stations and efforts to obstruct the work of election observers.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said turnout was over 56 percent, around 9 percent higher than the first round.

Both candidates are former foreign ministers of the South Caucasus country, which has warm ties with the United States and European Union. Relations with neighboring Russia remain tense following a five-day war in 2008.

Zurabishvili barely edged out Vashadze in an inconclusive first round in an election that international observers say was competitive but clouded by "an unlevel playing field" and private-media bias.

After casting his ballot in Tbilisi, President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who did not seek a second term, called on Georgian citizens to come to polling stations to express their will and "take part in the decision-making."

He expressed confidence that final voter turnout will be high, which he said would "guarantee that elections are orderly, with fewer violations."

Zurabishvili told journalists in the Georgian capital that she gave her vote to "the most European candidate."

"My choice is a peaceful Georgia, my choice is a united Georgia, my choice is a calm Georgia and my choice is a smiley Georgia," she added.

In the city of Kutaisi, Vashadze said Georgia was voting to preserve its democracy and statehood, and called on Georgian voters to go to the polling stations to defend these ideas.

During the two-week runoff campaign, Transparency International said it had information that fake identification cards were being produced by the Public Service Development Agency to allow Zurabishvili voters to cast several ballots.

The Georgian Dream party has denied it had anything to do with the alleged wrongdoing.

'Grudge Match'

An opinion poll by the U.S.-based company Edison Research gave Vashadze a 52 percent to 48 percent edge in the final days of a campaign marked by dirty tricks, mudslinging, and allegations of wrongdoing on both sides.

"This was an election that continued the Georgian tradition of vicious negative campaigning and was more about 'voting against' than 'voting for'," said Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, calling the election "a grudge match" between Ivanishvili and Saakashvili.

Saakashvili became president in January 2004 after leading a bloodless revolution that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down in November 2003.

He served two five-year terms and gained a reputation as a pro-NATO and pro-Western leader.

But he was also criticized for his strong-arm tactics and allegations of electoral fraud sullied his reputation.

Ivanishvili, the country's richest man and the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, ousted Saakashvili's United National Movement from power in the 2012 parliamentary elections.

The Georgian Dream party has ruled since, though Ivanishvili stepped down as prime minister after just over a year in power.

In January, Saakahsvili was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison after being convicted of trying to cover up evidence about the 2006 killing of Georgian banker Sandro Girgvliani.

The former president, who now lives in the Netherlands, has rejected all the charges, calling them politically motivated.

Last Direct Vote

Both Zurabishvili and Vashadze espouse a pro-European foreign policy looking to deepen ties with NATO and the European Union.

But Vashadze has been critical of Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream's government, alleging it has meddled in the judiciary and has fostered corruption while failing to address poverty in the country.

By backing Zurabishvili, Georgia Dream has made the vote a test of its support and has doubled down on the move by prominently featuring Ivanishvili and other leading party officials instead of a candidate who could make history as the first woman to be elected president of a post-Soviet republic outside of the Baltics.

While the president ensures adherence to the constitution by state bodies, the position's crucial function lies in foreign policy as the head of state is the main negotiator of international treaties and accords.

The president also appoints ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives.

This will be the last direct presidential vote before a new system of indirect voting takes effect.

In 2017, the constitution was amended so that future presidents would be elected by a 300-member College of Electors, comprising parliament deputies and local and regional political representatives.

With reporting by Civil.ge, AFP, and RFE/RL reporter Alan Crosby

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgian- presidential-runoff-pits-rivals-two- main-factions-/29625165.html

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Zurabishvili Poised To Win Georgia's Presidential Runoff