Early official results show ruling party in lead in Georgian parliamentary election

Early results of the Georgian parliamentary election show that the ruling Dream party in lead with 50.5 percent of votes, according to data released from the Central Election Commission (CEC) Sunday morning.

While the opposition United National Movement party, which is contesting official results, has got 26.6 percent of votes. The results were based on vote tally protocols from 2,014 out of 3,702 precincts.

An election bloc, led by Alliance of Patriots, has 4.77 percent of votes, falling slightly short of the 5 percent threshold required for a party to win seats in the 150-member parliament under the proportional,party-list system.

Other 23 parties and election blocs, which were running in the elections, have all failed in getting 4 percent of votes.

If these early results stand, the top two parties will share the 77 seats proportionally to their votes as no other party is clearing the 5 percent threshold.

The remaining 73 seats in the parliament are contested in 73 single-mandate constituencies. Early results of these races for majoritarian MP seats are not yet available.

Political parties and observers expect second round runoffs in many of the single-mandate constituencies. Endi