Georgians to vote in last direct election for president

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Sunday's election will be the last time residents of the former Soviet republic of Georgia get to cast a ballot for president — that's if any of the 25 candidates gets an absolute majority.

Opinion polls suggest that none of the candidates will exceed the 50 percent needed for a first-round victory and that the country on the Black Sea will have to choose between Sunday's two top candidates in a runoff that would be held by Dec. 1.

Under constitutional changes that began in 2010, Georgia is transitioning to being a parliamentary country. After the upcoming president's six-year term ends, future heads of state will be chosen by delegates. The presidency's powers already have been substantially reduced, with the prime minister becoming the country's most powerful politician. </s> Polling stations opened in Georgia on Sunday for citizens to elect their president for the last time through direct voting before elections become the prerogative of the legislature.

Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze from the opposition are seen as clear favorites in the polls, which are open to more than 3.5 million voters. </s> Georgians are casting their ballots on Sunday in the last direct presidential election, after the nation’s constitution was amended eight years ago. Under the new law, the popular vote is to be replaced in 2024 by an electoral college, comprised of lawmakers and delegates from local administrations. The tight race is fronted by former foreign ministers, Salome Zurabishvili, and Davit Bakradze. Zurabishvili, 66, is running as an independent, but is endorsed by the ruling liberal Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party. Her main opponent Bakradze, 46, is from the opposition European Georgia party. The vote has been marred with reports of various scuffles and fiery arguments erupting between politicians and activists at some of the polling stations. </s> Georgians to vote in last direct election for president

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Sunday's election will be the last time residents of the former Soviet republic of Georgia get to cast a ballot for president — that's if any of the 25 candidates running gets an absolute majority.

Opinion polls suggest that none of the candidates will exceed the 50 percent needed for a first-round victory and that the country on the Black Sea will have to choose between Sunday's two top candidates in a November presidential runoff.

Under constitutional changes that began in 2010, Georgia is transitioning to being a parliamentary country. After the upcoming president's six-year term ends, future heads of state will be chosen by delegates. The presidency's powers already have been substantially reduced, with the prime minister becoming the country's most powerful politician.

Most polls show the top three candidates as Salome Zurabishvili, Grigol Vashadze and David Bakradze. Each served a stint as Georgia's foreign minister during the presidency of now-exiled Mikheil Saakashvili.

Zurabishvili was sacked in 2005 amid disagreements with parliament. She is running as an independent but is backed the powerful Georgian Dream party funded by controversial billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Saakashvili foe. Georgian Dream holds an overwhelming majority in the parliament.

Zurabishvili, however, has been heavily criticized for her contention that Georgia started the 2008 war with Russia. Some Georgians look with suspicion at her foreign background: born in France, she did not visit Georgia until she was in her 30s and she once served as a French diplomat.

Zurabishvili counters that this background is a strong qualification for Georgian president as the country seeks closer ties with the European Union.

"My European experience of what it means to develop in democratic society, while knowing what is Georgian society," can be useful, she told The Associated Press.

Vashadze, who is backed by a coalition that includes the United National Movement that was founded by Saakashvili, says the election is a choice "between law and order and the constitution, and Ivanishvili, his informal criminal armed groups and corruption, which is back in Georgia."

"Citizens, businessmen, they are scared to death to contribute a single dime to the united opposition," he said.

Vashadze says Saakashvili, who was stripped of his citizenship in 2015 and was sentenced in absentia for abuse of power, should be allowed to return to Georgia.

The third top candidate, Bakradze, is from the European Georgia Party, which split off from the UNM. He says Zurabishvili is "unacceptable due to her position and statements, which directly harm Georgia's security and national interests."

The election is being monitored by an array of local and international groups.

The Georgian branch of Transparency International on Thursday issued a report claiming that Georgian Dream had misused its position as the governing party by mobilizing government workers to attend Zurabishvili's rallies.

Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report. </s> TBILISI – Voters in Georgia are casting ballots in a presidential election that could see the country become the first Caucasus nation to elect a female president.

The October 28 presidential election, Georgia's seventh since 1991, will be the last in which the head of state will be elected by direct ballot. In 2017, the constitution was amended so that future presidents would be elected by a 300-member College of Electors, comprising parliamentarians and local and regional political representatives.

Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze was among the first to cast his ballot in the capital, Tbilisi.

"I voted for prosperity, Georgian traditions, and our European choice," he told reporters after voting.

Some 3.5 million are eligible to cast ballots in the election, which is being monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

By midday, turnout stood at almost 16 percent, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

CEC spokeswoman Ana Mikeladz said voting was proceeding peacefully across the country with only a few minor procedural issues arising.

Polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m. local time.

French-born former Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, 66, is among a record 25 candidates in a bruising race notable more for its dirty tricks and mudslinging than debate on policy.

Zurabishvili, who is running as an independent even though she has the backing of the ruling Georgian Dream party, headed by former prime minister and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has faced personal attacks over her background and been branded a traitor for saying a brief war with Russia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008 occurred because "we yielded to Russia's provocation."

The campaign has also been marked with several releases of secretly recorded audio tapes alleging bribery among state officials, a murder plot implicating former President Mikheil Saakashvili, and claims of witness tampering and torture in politically charged cases.

"If there is a sufficient mobilization of Georgian Dream supporters, Salome Zurabishvili should score a first-round victory," Ivanishvili said.

Independent opinion polls are hard to come by in Georgia, but party-backed surveys suggest the main contenders are Zurabishvili; Grigol Vashadze, also a former foreign minister who is running for the opposition United National Movement (UNM; and former parliament speaker Davit Bakradze, nominated by the opposition European Georgia party.

The first-round winner needs more than 50 percent of votes to avoid a runoff between the top two candidates.

If Zurabishvili doesn't clinch a majority of votes in the first round, Ivanishvili said "there is no doubt" she will win a runoff.

If Zurabishvili wins the vote, she would become the first woman outside the Baltics to be elected head of state in a post-Soviet republic.

A woman has previously served as acting president, however.

Nino Burjanadze was twice thrust into the role of president, once just after the 2003 Rose Revolution and again when President Mikheil Saakashvili stepped down in late 2007 to call an early presidential election following a political crisis over a violent crackdown on opposition protesters. Burjanadze was parliament speaker at the time.

With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Alan Crosby and Interfax </s> "The turnout in the Georgian presidential election was 46.74 percent; a total of 1,637,956 people voted. The turnout in the 2013 presidential election was 45.4 percent," Mikeladze told reporters at a briefing.

Georgia will hold second round of presidential election as candidates have failed to gain required 50 percent of votes, the Georgian Election Administration said on Monday after 98 percent of votes were counted.

Salome Zourabichvili, an independent backed by the ruling Georgian Dream has received 38.6 percent, while his rival Grigol Vashadze from the main opposition party got 37.7 percent. They both qualify for the second round, according to the administration.

The polling stations have closed on October 28 at 8 p.m. local time (16:00 p.m. GMT). A total of 25 candidates took part in the election.

This presidential election in Georgia is last when the country's leader is elected directly by people. All following presidents will be chosen by a special panel consisting of 300 electors. Given these changes, the president who will be elected this year will spend six years in the office instead of five. </s> Georgians are voting in their country's presidential election. Incumbent president Giorgi Margvelashvili, who is not seeking a second term, said he voted on October 28 "for a commander in chief that is proud of the men and women serving under the Georgian flag." Former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who leads the ruling Georgian Dream party, said he hoped that the election outcome will set Georgia on its "true path toward Europe and culture." Both Margvelashvili and Ivanishvili voted in the capital, Tbilisi. </s> Tbilisi: Georgia´s newly elected President Salome Zurabishvili on Thursday hailed her victory as a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe for the ex-Soviet republic.



With all votes counted, the country´s election commission said the French-born ex-diplomat, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had taken 59.52 percent of the second-round vote.

Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili´s United National Movement (UNM), took 40.48 percent.

The opposition denounced the election as a fraud. But while raising some serious concerns, foreign observers said the vote was "competitive" and well-run.

"It is now important to show that this country has chosen Europe," Zurabishvili said told journalists after her win. "For that purpose, Georgians have elected a European woman president."

"It feels great," she said, pointing out that she was one of a small number of women presidents in the world.

The election was seen as a test of Georgia´s democratic credentials as it seeks European Union and NATO membership.

It was also a trial run for more important parliamentary elections in 2020, when Georgian Dream is set to face off against a range of opposition parties.

The party is the creation of billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who many see as the small country´s de facto ruler.

"(The) election was competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely, however one side enjoyed an undue advantage," monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a report after the vote.

The elections were "well administered", they said, but raised concerns about misuse of administrative resources that "blurred the line between party and state".

Ivanishvili´s great rival, the flamboyant ex-president Saakashvili, claimed "mass electoral fraud" even before official results were released.

"The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections," he said on the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel, referring to Ivanishvili.

"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."

But Vashadze´s opposition alliance distanced itself from Saakashvili´s remarks, saying it would hold an evening gathering of supporters to discuss further steps.

Tensions increased ahead of the second round, as the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked Vashadze campaign staff.

Zurabishvili in turn said she and her children had received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM.

Rights groups have accused government officials of vote-buying on a "widespread" and "unprecedented" scale and of election fraud, including through the alleged printing of fake ID cards.

Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old independent lawmaker, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the country´s annexation by the Red Army.

Her career in France´s foreign service culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president Saakashvili appointed her foreign minister.

But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies among the parliamentary majority, with MPs and some senior diplomats accusing her of arrogance and impulsiveness.

When she was sacked after a year in the job, thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest her dismissal.

On Thursday morning she received blessings from the influential head of Georgia´s Orthodox Church, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, and was later seen by passersby sipping coffee with her children on a sunny terrace in central Tbilisi.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement that Paris was looking forward to working with Zurabishvili "to further strengthen" relations.

Vashadze, a 60-year-old career diplomat, had criticised Ivanishvili´s "informal oligarch rule" amid growing discontent over the government´s failure to tackle poverty.

The vote was Georgia´s last direct leadership poll as it transitions to a parliamentary form of governance. The first round of the presidential election on October 28 saw Zurabishvili take 39 percent of the vote, against 38 percent for Vashadze.

Street protests against the results could spark concern for the country, which has seen civil wars, mass demonstrations and unrest since gaining its independence in 1991 on the break-up of the Soviet Union.

A smooth presidential transition, however, would be welcomed by many as a sign of stability in Georgia, which is emerging as a tourism hotspot and hopes for more foreign investment. </s> TBILISI: Georgia´s newly elected President Salome Zurabishvili on Thursday hailed her victory as a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe for the ex-Soviet republic.

With all votes counted, the country´s election commission said the French-born ex-diplomat, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had taken 59.52 percent of the second-round vote.

Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili´s United National Movement (UNM), took 40.48 percent. The opposition denounced the election as a fraud. But while raising some serious concerns, foreign observers said the vote was "competitive" and well-run.

"It is now important to show that this country has chosen Europe," Zurabishvili told journalists after her win. "For that purpose, Georgians have elected a European woman president." "It feels great," she said, pointing out that she was one of a small number of women presidents in the world.

The election was seen as a test of Georgia´s democratic credentials as it seeks

European Union and Nato membership. It was also a trial run for more important parliamentary elections in 2020, when Georgian Dream is set to face off against a range of opposition parties.

The party is the creation of billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who many see as the small country´s de facto ruler. "(The) election was competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely, however one side enjoyed an undue advantage," monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a report after the vote.

The elections were "well administered", they said, but raised concerns about misuse of administrative resources that "blurred the line between party and state". Ivanishvili´s great rival, the flamboyant ex-president Saakashvili, claimed "mass electoral fraud" even before official results were released. "The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections," he said on the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel, referring to Ivanishvili.

"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." But Vashadze´s opposition alliance distanced itself from Saakashvili´s remarks, saying it would hold an evening gathering of supporters to discuss further steps.

Tensions increased ahead of the second round, as the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked Vashadze campaign staff. Zurabishvili in turn said she and her children had received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM.

Rights groups have accused government officials of vote-buying on a "widespread" and "unprecedented" scale and of election fraud, including through the alleged printing of fake ID cards.

Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old independent lawmaker, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the country´s annexation by the Red Army. Her career in France´s foreign service culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president Saakashvili appointed her foreign minister.

But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies among the parliamentary majority, with MPs and some senior diplomats accusing her of arrogance and impulsiveness. When she was sacked after a year in the job, thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest her dismissal.
Georgian citizens vote in the last presidential election to be decided by direct election.