MP Davit Bakradze, top MP candidate on UNM’s party list, October 8, 2016. Photo: Guram Muradov/Civil.ge

MP Davit Bakradze, who leads UNM opposition party’s list of MP candidates, claimed shortly after exit poll results were announced that the ruling GDDG party failed to “receive mandate of confidence” from the voters and UNM has a good chance of winning the elections.

Polling stations in the October 8 parliamentary elections were closed at 8pm local time and vote count is currently underway.

Although figures from early results of two separate exit polls differ largely, both of them put GDDG ruling party ahead of UNM party. GDDG’s lead in exit poll, commissioned by the Rustavi 2 TV, was much narrower compared to exit poll, commissioned jointly by public broadcaster, Imedi TV, Maestro TV and GDS TV.

• GDDG Claims ‘Huge Election Victory’

MP Bakradze said that despite electoral violations, “even the early results of exit poll show that the Georgian Dream and Bidzina Ivanishvili have failed to receive mandate of confidence from the Georgian voters.”

Citing Rustavi 2 TV’s exit poll, Bakradze said that GDDG received “39% of votes – let me remind you that in 2012, when the United National Movement lost the elections, it received 40% of votes.”

“So even in 2012, defeated UNM received more votes from Georgian people than Georgian Dream received today, according to early exit poll results,” Bakradze said.
 
He said that about third of the respondents in the exit poll refused to name their preferred party.

“It [high rate of non-responses] is quite natural in the climate of intimidation and violence created by the authorities. We have all the reason to suppose that… large share of non-responses are actually UNM supporters and after the ballots are count their votes will go to the UNM,” Bakradze said.

“Seven percentage point difference [in favor of GDDG in the Rustavi 2 TV’s exit poll] is very tentative and this difference will change drastically and due to the vote of these people [non-responses], UNM will take the first place [in the election results],” he said.

“These are just exit polls and everything is being decided at the polling stations. I want to call on our supporters, our members and representatives to election commissions, we should continue working, we should defend our votes and I am sure that tomorrow morning the Georgian population will see that the National Movement takes the first place,” MP Bakradze said.

A party has to receive at least 5% of votes in nationwide vote in order to win seats in the Parliament under the proportional, party list system. 77 seats in 150-member parliament are up for grabs under the proportional system.

73 majoritarian MP seats are contested in 73 single-mandate constituencies.