Europe

Georgia’s outgoing prime minister predicts a “landslide victory” in this Saturday’s elections

Georgia's outgoing prime minister predicts a "landslide victory" in this Saturday's elections

MADRID 26 Oct. () –

The outgoing Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobajidze, has stressed that this Saturday’s legislative elections are taking place “peacefully” and has predicted a “landslide victory” for his party, Georgian Dream.

“The elections are taking place peacefully. Of the 3,111 polling stations, more than 3,100 are taking place peacefully,” he said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon, according to the Georgian news portal civil.ge.

Regarding the results, Kobajidze has assured that Georgian Dream has “already” achieved an “overwhelming victory”, but has warned that a qualified majority is not yet guaranteed, which is why he has urged citizens to continue voting.

“It is a choice between war and peace, between immoral propaganda and traditional values, the country’s dark past and a European future for Georgia,” he argued.

Furthermore, Kobajidze has pointed out the incidents that have been reported to opposition television stations and has questioned how the teams of these channels were there “just when the thugs appeared.”

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has meanwhile reported that participation has been 50.6 percent until 5:00 p.m., three nine hours of voting, which represents an increase of almost five points compared to the 2020 elections.

In this Saturday’s elections there are 3,508,294 Georgians with the right to vote and 3,031 voting centers have been set up. The polls close at 8:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. in mainland Spain) and the first official results based on electronic counts are expected to be published in a matter of hours. The final results will be announced on the morning of October 27 after the manual count has been carried out.

These elections are crucial for the direction of Georgia since the ruling Georgian Dream party hopes to revalidate its mandate and its rapprochement with Russia, while the opposition proposes returning to the path of integration into the EU.

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