Election officials at one of Tbilisi’s precincts empty ballot boxes as counting begins in Georgia’s parliamentary elections, October 8, 2016. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili/Civil.ge

Vote count is underway after polls closed in Georgia’s October 8 parliamentary elections.

Early official results are expected by 6am local time on Sunday, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

1,814,276 voters cast ballot in the October 8 parliamentary elections, accounting for 51.63% of total number of voters, according to CEC.

According to local observers, despite some incidents and procedural violations, in overall, voters were able to express their will freely on the election day.

The most serious incident took place at the polling station No.48 in the village of Kizilajlo of the Marneuli municipality in Kvemo Kartli region, where the voting was disrupted by clashes and where opposition activists tried to storm the building, where the election precinct was located. 

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), the largest Georgian election monitoring non-governmental organization, said that “in the vast majority of the polling stations, the voting process was conducted in the lawful manner.”

“In certain precincts we observed some tension, however, except of one case [in Marneuli], it did not have substantial impact on the voting process,” it said.

“Despite the fact that ISFED observers have identified a number of violations of electoral procedures, including a few significant violations, overall, we believe that these incidents could not have substantial impact on the voters to express their free will,” the monitoring group said.