Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Midterm elections to fill three vacant seats in the Georgian parliament ended with the complete victory of ruling Georgian Dream candidates on Saturday.

The elections were held in 177 polling stations in Tbilisi's Nadzaladevi constituency and Samtredia and Bagdati constituencies of Imereti region. 13 political parties and one independent bloc participated in the elections, which were monitored by 20 NGOs, 7 international and 17 media organizations.

Civil.ge website reports that three seats in the Parliament became vacant after majoritarian MPs from the Georgian Dream coalition were appointed to government posts shortly after the Oct.1 2012 parliamentary elections; Tea Tsulukiani, who was elected in Tbilisi's Nadzaladevi single-mandate constituency, became the Justice Minister; Kakha Kaladze, who won majoritarian race in Samtredia constituency became Energy Minister and Archil Kbilashvili, who was a majoritarian MP from Bagdati single-mandate constituency, was appointed as chief prosecutor.

Chairman of the Georgian Central Election Committee (CEC) Zurab Kharatishvili said at a press conference on Saturday that the election took place mainly in a relaxed atmosphere and it was attended by an average of 32 percent of the total number of voters.

The turnout in Nadzaladevi district of Tbilisi was 28 percent, Bagdati - 36 percent and Samtredia - 48 percent.

Kharatishvili said that the CEC received only three complaints relating to procedural violations, which can not affect the outcome of the election.

Representative of Georgian Dream Tamar Kordzaya won 39.49 percent of votes in Nadzaladevi district. In other two districts the ruling party gained a stronger advantage.

Candidate from Georgian Dream Giorgi Kakhiani won 81.49 percent of votes in Samtredia. Representative of President Mikheil Saakashvili-led United National Movement (UNM) Emzar Shubladze ranks second with 18.3 percent of the votes.

In Bagdati, representative of the government coalition Paata Kiknavelidze gained 59.8 percent of votes. Representative of United National Movement Vladimir Tsikoridze ranks second with 24.09 percent of votes.

All observers affirm that the April 27 elections were held in a peaceful and competitive atmosphere and no serious violations were recorded.

Meanwhile, Saakashvili said the UNM was knocked down after the defeat in the parliamentary elections on Oct.1 "but it was not a knockout and the party slowly rises to its feet".

Commenting on the early results of midterm elections on his official Facebook page on Sunday, Saakashvili said that with its actions involving thousands of people, UNM has shown that it is alive and it is the most real opposition.

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in turn told journalists on Sunday that the victory of Georgian Dream candidates 'was not at all a surprise'.

"What matters the most is that the elections were held calmly... October [presidential] elections will be similarly calm, but the margin [of GD's victory] will be even bigger; I think that the United National Movement's candidate will not get even 10%, let's see," Ivanishvili said.