Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

An opposition coalition claimed victory in a parliamentary election in Georgia on Monday and its leader, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, said he was confident of becoming prime minister of the former Soviet republic as partial results put his coalition on course to win the election.

According to the Central Election Commission, with ballots from 25 percent of polling stations counted, the Georgian Dream coalition had 53.2 percent and President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) had 41.5 percent.

It said preliminary counts showed Georgian Dream won 27 of the 73 races in constituencies, and the UNM had won 25 and the ballots from the other 21 remained uncounted.

The UNM and the Georgian Dream both said they would win a majority of seats in the new 150-member legislature.

Experts say this election will be remembered by its activity record.14 parties and two political blocs are participating in the elections. If one-third of voters participate, it is considered that the election has taken place. An official from the Central Election Commission said that 61% of eligible voters cast their ballots.

The new parliament is being elected as the country prepares to usher in constitutional changes that will go into effect once Saakashvili's term ends in 2013. According to the amendments, the Georgian parliament will be granted more authority, and the rights of the head of state will be limited.

The new system, according to Thomas de Waal, an expert on Georgia and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, will shift power from the president to a prime minister. "The prime minister will be chosen by parliament, which thus hands important powers to whichever political force obtains a majority in parliament in the October 1 elections," de Waal said.

After the release of preliminary election tallies, the opposition supporting Georgian Dream celebrated their forthcoming victory. Ivanishvili won votes by promising to tackle poverty and corruption, blaming these problems on Saakashvili, although not everyone trusts him to do better than the incumbent president and Saakashvili portrays him as open to Russian manipulation.

"Parliament will be the main body running Georgia, so it will be a much more diluted power," Saakashvili said. "There will no longer be a strong man or stakeholder of power and I think that is a fair system because in democracy there are checks and balances for different people."

In a televised address after polls closed, Saakashvili, 44, said it appeared Georgian Dream had prevailed in the party-list voting but his party had come out ahead in the individual races.

When parliament convenes, ruling party and opposition deputies should "take their seats and start working in a joint democratic process", he said. "We are all Georgian citizens, we should stand together and work together."

Georgia experts point to the nation's political volatility because it is so polarized.

"If such polarization is institutionalized through a vote, it can be healthy, but when it's not it can create a dangerous and unpredictable environment," said Cory Welt, associate director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

Thomas de Waal in turn regarded the election rivalry as "the clash of the titans."

"We've seen the clash of two very big figures in Georgian politics, Saakashvili and Ivanishvili, who do not want to share power," de Waal commented. "They both are claiming total victory, and this, obviously, will have some impact in the U.S., because both sides will be looking to the U.S. and calling on the U.S. to be arbiter, which is rather an unrealistic thing to happen, but I think Washington's going to have to brace itself for those calls."

Elections 'free and fair'

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said Georgia has taken an important step toward democratic elections.

Georgia's parliamentary elections marked an important step in consolidating the conduct of democratic elections, although certain key issues remain to be addressed, international election observers concluded in a statement released on Tuesday, according to the OSCE.

A group of observers from the regional group GUAM said the elections in Georgia were free and fair, as well as in the spirit of competition.

"The parliamentary elections in Georgia were organized and conducted in accordance with international commitments and standards for democratic elections, including the obligations and standards of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, and in accordance with national legislation, regulations and procedures established by the Georgian Central Election Commission," says a statement from GUAM, an organization comprising Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

The U.S. State Department believes voter turnout on election day was very high, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing in Washington, according to the State Department's website.

Nuland noted that the U.S. has been looking for a democratic election that is free, fair and transparent. She said that the international community has had a relatively robust monitoring mission in Georgia, including ODIHR, which operates under the OSCE auspices. "And our understanding is we have NDI [National Democratic Institute] and IRI [International Republican Institute] observers out there as well," she said.