Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Georgians have gone to the polls for the second round of parliamentary elections to decide the outcome of one-third of the seats in the 150-seat legislature.

Voting at the second round of Georgia’s parliamentary elections ended as all the 2,229 polling stations in 50 one-seat constituencies closed at 20:00 local time on October 30, local media reported.

"The voting process proceeded in a peaceful, calm atmosphere in all the 50 constituencies. No serious violations were reported," Ani Mikeladze, a spokeswoman for the Georgian Central Election Commission, told journalists.

As of 17:00 local time (16:00 Moscow time), the voter turnout was 30.99 percent as about 768,000 voters had taken part in the polling in 50 one-seat constituencies.

According to the Central Election Commission and local non-government organizations monitoring the voting, certain procedural, technical and other minor violations were reported in a number of constituencies.

The results will finally distribute the seats in the Georgian parliament, and the party gaining the majority vote will be able to introduce the candidate for the post of the country's prime minister, who will form the new cabinet.

The parliament consists of 150 members, whereas 77 members are elected proportionately to the share of votes given to parties' lists and 73 parliamentarians are elected in single-mandate electoral districts, according to Georgia's legislation.

The first round of elections was held on October 8, resulting in three parties made it into the Georgian parliament — the ruling Georgian Dream Party (44 seats), the United National Movement (7 seats) and the Alliance of Patriots (6 seats).

The second round of voting took place in 50 out of 73 single-mandate electoral districts, where none of the candidates managed to gain over 50 percent of votes after the first round, necessary to establish the winner.

The two candidates obtaining the best results following the first round of voting were contesting in the elections. The citizens in the majority of electoral districts were choosing between the candidates from the Georgian Dream Party and the Georgian ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement.

The ruling Georgian Dream Party expects to win a constitutional majority.

Georgian Dream party took 67 of the parliament’s seats in voting three weeks ago, but no candidate received a majority of first-round votes for 50 other seats.

Led from behind the scenes by billionaire ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream is hoping to win at least 113 seats in total in the national elections. If it happens, the party would have the majority of votes needed to pass constitutional amendments.

Georgian Dream is running against the main opposition United National Movement (ENM), founded by self-exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

In the first round of elections, Georgian Dream won 48.68 percent of the vote in a proportional ballot, while the ENM came in second with 27.11 percent.

Both Georgian Dream and its main opponent, the ENM, are pro-Western, seeking better relations with NATO and the EU.

Following the first-round vote earlier this month, almost all opposition parties cried foul, accusing the government of massive vote rigging -- a claim flatly rejected by the authorities.

However, international observers informed that no serious violations were observed during the voting process.

The current elections are of major importance for the country’s future political life as under the new edition of the national constitution which came into force in 2012-2013 a party of a bloc winning a simple majority in the parliament (76 seats) will have the right to nominate its candidate for prime minister and form a government.

The prime minister, under the new constitution, enjoys much more authority in the country that the president who is the formal head of state with limited competences.

---

Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz