Georgia's ruling party declares victory in parliamentary elections

The ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party claimed victory after preliminary results released Monday showing it won 77 seats in the 150-member parliament in the parliamentary elections held on Oct. 8.

The preliminary results were based on 99.92 percent of calculated votes for the propotional election part, which shows the GDDG winning 48.6 percent of the votes. However, a second round of elections for seats of the majoritarian member of parliament will be held in 51 out of the total 73 single-mandate constituencies, where no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes.

GDDG majoritarian MP candidates also won outright victory in the remaining 22 districts, according to partial official results from the Central Election Commission.

"We don't yet have the final results, but according to the preliminary results, we have convincingly won the elections. This is our great support, which means that the majority of voters let us rule the country for the next four years", Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said at a briefing held at the GDDG central office, calling on the people to actively participate in the second round vote-casting.

But the final makeup of the parliament in Georgia's mixed electoral system will only be defined after the runoffs.

"We are convinced that we will win all the second round runoffs in the single-mandate constituencies and the Georgian Dream will win a constitutional majority in the Parliament," the country's ruling party's executive secretary, Irakli Kobakhidze, told local media.

According to Georgia's Election Code, the second round must be held within 25 days after the first round. Two candidates who show best results in the first round will take part in the second round. Endi