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Georgian Opposition Celebrate Election

01 October 2012 21:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in the center of the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday evening to celebrate as exit polls put their Georgian Dream coalition ahead in todayâ€™s crucial parliamentary elections, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.
But with hours still to go before the results are officially announced, their celebrations could prove premature.
President Mikheil Saakashvili, who leads the ruling United National Movement (UNM), admitted on state television that Georgian Dream was ahead in the vote in Tbilisi, but said his coalition was winning convincingly in the regions.
â€œBut this does not mean we will split the country between Tbilisi and the regions,â€ Saakashvili said. â€œWe are all citizens of Georgia and we must stand side-by-side.â€
Saakashvili also called on Georgian Dream to put aside the differences of the â€œemotional and tenseâ€ election campaign and work together with the UNM.
The atmosphere among the growing crowd on Freedom Square is euphoric, with chants of â€œGeorgia.â€ Policing is virtually non-existent, although a drone is hovering above the crowd.
The run up to todayâ€™s voting has been fraught with tension and fears of violence.
â€œThere will be trouble if Saakashvili tries to steal the vote,â€ warned Levan Chochua, a middle-aged Georgian Dream supporter on Freedom Square.
â€œSaakashvili says we are for Russia, but we are just for a normal life. He has built a faÃ§ade of European democracy in the center of Tbilisi, but most people never see all thisâ€ Levan added, gesturing at the impressive buildings that ring the square.
These elections have seen Saakashvili face his most serious political threat since coming to power in 2003 as the result of a revolt against a regime led by former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire who leads the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, warned his supporters to stay calm ahead of the official results.
The elections have taken on particular importance in the light of a law passed in 2010 that transfers the majority of the presidentâ€™s executive powers to the prime minister. The law comes into force from 2013 when Saakashviliâ€™s second term ends. Whoever wins Mondayâ€™s polls will be able to appoint the prime minister.
Saakashviliâ€™s UNM enjoyed a healthy lead in opinion polls until last month, when opposition channels aired explicit footage of male inmates at a Tbilisi jail being sexually assaulted with broom handles. The videos triggered large protests across Georgia and widespread anger at Saakashvili and the UNM.
The torture tapes appear to have caused real damage to the ruling coalitionâ€™s hopes of reelection. A survey released last week by the German research institute Forsa indicated that 65 percent of voters were now preparing to back Georgian Dream at Mondayâ€™s polls, while only 25 percent supported Saakashviliâ€™s UNM.