Off the wire
• Xinhua Insight: China battles chemical pollution along Yangtze  • Lithuania's ruling social democrats fall behind in first round of parliamentary elections  • China encourages enterprise mergers, reorganization  • Vietnamese banks expect credit growth of 21.82 percent in 2016: survey  • China details plan for debt-for-equity swaps  • Georgia's ruling party declares victory in parliamentary elections  • News Analysis: Trump goes on offensive, but Clinton more eloquent on policy  • WTA Tianjin Open results  • Chinese bicycle-sharing service secures financing  • Pique announces retirement after 2018 World Cup  
You are here: 　 Home

(recast with corrections) Georgian parliamentary election to go into runoffs

Xinhua, October 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

A second round of elections for seats of the majoritarian member of parliament will be held in 51 out of a total of 73 single-mandate constituencies, where no candidate gets more than 50 percent of votes, according to the preliminary results of the October 8 parliamentary elections in Georgia.

According to the 99.92 percent caculated votes for the propotional election part released on Monday, the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party has already won the majority of 77 seats with 48.6 percent votes, which were up for grabs under the proportional, party-list nationwide vote.

"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 majority of voters let us rule the country for the next four years," Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said at a briefing held in the GDDG central office, calling on the people to actively participate in the second round voting.

But the final makeup of the 150-member parliament in Georgia's mixed electoral system will only be defined after the second round runoffs in the 51 single-member districts.

GDDG majoritarian MP candidates are winning outright victory without requiring second round in 22 out of the 73 single-mandate districts, according to partial official results from the Central Election Commission.

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

According to the 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