Georgia President "Wins Election"

World | January 6, 2008, Sunday // 00:00
Georgia President "Wins Election" Photo by BGNES

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said he is confident of victory in the country's snap election after exit polls gave him a commanding lead, BBC reported.

Exit polls said Saakashvili won 53.7% of the vote against 20% for the most popular opposition candidate, wine businessman Levan Gachechiladze.

Should the result be officially confirmed, this would mean an outright win for the president, who, even though tipped as favourite in the race aginst six opposition candidates, was widely expected to claim victory at a run-off ballot.

But the opposition accused the government of trying to rig the vote and called its supporters to hold a street protest.

The vote is seen as a democratic test for the ex-USSR state after recent opposition protests were suppressed.

President Saakashvili came to power after the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003 and called the current snap poll after violently crushing anti-government protests in November 2007.

Along with the presidential election, Georgians were asked to vote on whether they should have a parliamentary election in the spring of 2008.

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