Georgia ruling party wins election, says poll body amid opposition protests

Result ensures Georgian Dream’s control of 150-seat parliament, but it is short of an absolute majority to change constitution.

Georgia’s governing Georgian Dream party has won the country’s parliamentary election, says the electoral commission, amid protests from pro-Western opposition that denounced the vote as a “constitutional coup”.

With more than 99 percent of the precincts counted on Sunday, the governing party received more than 54 percent of the ballot, central election commission chair Giorgi Kalandarishvili told a news conference.

The four opposition parties received more than 37 percent of the vote, with the Coalition for Change receiving the largest slice at 10.822 percent, according to the Georgia Today news website.

Based on preliminary estimates, the Georgian Dream victory ensures it 89 seats in the 150-member parliament – enough to govern but short of the absolute majority it wants to make sweeping constitutional changes.