Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili won a snap presidential election outright with 52.8 percent of the vote, election officials said on Sunday. Less than 50 percent would have forced him into a second-round runoff vote.
Officials said votes at a handful of overseas polling stations remained to be counted but were unlikely to affect the final tally. Thousands of protesters gathered in the capital to accuse Saakashvili of rigging the election.
But Western observers said the Saturday vote had been broadly fair, making it harder for the opposition to challenge the result. The United States urged them to respect the observers' verdict.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the vote had been marred by "blatant pressure" on the opposition and called the observers' report "hasty" and "superficial".