Georgia votes in the second round of contested parliamentary polls Sunday, with the ruling Georgian Dream poised for a landslide victory after opposition parties alleged fraud in the first round.
Led from behind the scenes by billionaire ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream is running against the main opposition United National Movement (UNM), founded by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Sunday's vote, which works on a first-past-the-post basis, will decide the fate of a third of the mandates in the 150-seat legislature.
In the first round, which was held on October 8, Georgian Dream won 48.68 percent of the vote in a proportional ballot, while UNM came second with 27.11 percent.
For the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet history, the first round also saw a small anti-Western party, the Alliance of Patriots, clearing the five-percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
According to the first round result, Georgian Dream will take 67 seats, UNM 27 seats, and Alliance of Patriots six seats in the new parliament.
With the remaining 50 seats up for grabs in Sunday's runoff, Georgian Dream was expected to win almost all of them.
Should the party win at least 113 seats, as expected, it would be able to form a new cabinet and pass constitutional amendments.
Comments
Comments are closed.