The coalition led by the Georgian billionaire leads against the ruling party of Mikheil Saakashvili in the parliamentary elections held, according to exit polls. However, tonight it was not clear who would win the final victory.
Two separate exit polls gave a preliminary lead to tycoon Bidzhin Invanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition.
Ivanishvili confidently declared victory, but it does not necessarily mean that he will have a majority in the parliament due to the complex combination of proportional and majority voting systems, AFP reported.
The campaign between Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement and the Georgian Dream coalition led by Ivanishvili has become extremely bitter after a prison torture scandal sparked protests across the country.
The campaign between Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement and the Georgian Dream coalition led by Ivanishvili has become increasingly bitter after a prison torture scandal sparked protests across the country.
According to preliminary exit polls for the pro-government Rustavi 2 television and Imedu channel, Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream has the upper hand with 51 percent compared to 41 percent won by Saakashvili's United National Movement. The first official results are expected early today.
"We won! The Georgian people have won," Ivanishvili said in a speech broadcast by the opposition TV9 channel. "We expect to get no less than 100 seats in the new parliament," Ivanishvili told a crowd in Tbilisi shortly after the polls closed. "I have achieved what I have been striving for for a long time," he told cheering supporters.
However, the ruling party said that due to the complex electoral system in Georgia, the opposition may not win a majority in parliament.
"We need to wait for the results, but it seems that the Georgian Dream coalition won the majority in proportional voting, but the majority was provided by the Georgian ruling United National Movement in terms of the number of mandates in the electoral units," Saakashvili said.
Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Tbilisi's Freedom Square and celebrated when the exit polls were announced. Before the prisoner torture scandal, most polls gave the ruling party a significant lead.
Footage of prisoners being tortured, beaten and raped led to street protests after they were aired on two television channels opposed to Saakashvili.
Ivanishvili, who made his fortune through privatization deals in Russia, threatened to call for mass demonstrations unless Western observers declared the election fair.
Bidzin Invanishvili
In a highly controversial move that worried the West, Ivanishvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after announcing last year that he would run against Saakashvili, and is currently a French citizen
In a hugely controversial move that worried the West, Ivanishvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after announcing last year that he would run against Saakashvili, and is currently a French citizen.
He symbolically did not vote yesterday, despite the fact that he was allowed to do so by the constitutional amendment. The highly polarized campaign in the country of 4,5 million has been described by international observers as "confrontational and crude", and has raised fears of post-election unrest.
Any signs of instability would worry the West because of the role the Caucasus country plays in transferring energy from the Caspian Sea to Europe and its strategic location between Russia, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia.
Georgia's main allies, the US and the European Union, have called for fair elections and stressed that democratic progress is key to the country's ambitions to join Western institutions such as NATO.
These elections are "a litmus test for the way democracy works in Georgia," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. Saakashvili's party has ruled the country since the charismatic jurist came to power after the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that ousted then-leader, former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevarnadze.
The president's party controls 119 out of 150 seats in parliament. These elections are crucial for Georgia's future as parliament and the prime minister become more influential while the president's powers are reduced due to constitutional changes that take effect after Saakashvili's second term ends in 2013.
Since declaring independence from the USSR, Georgia has gone through economic collapse, civil war, political unrest that ousted two presidents, and a five-day war with Russia in 2008.
Ivanishvili - a tycoon whose assets weigh as much as half of the Georgian economy
The only thing that Ivanishvili does not have, or at least did not have until now, is power
Ivanishvili, a tycoon whose assets are worth $6.4 billion, almost as much as half of Georgia's economy, is one of the most successful businessmen in the world.
Among other things, he has a zoo with zebras and penguins in his village in western Georgia, as well as a large collection of modern works of art.
His house is reminiscent of palaces from James Bond films, with a panoramic view of Tbilisi. He also owns a fleet of black Land Cruisers.
The only thing that Ivanishvili does not have, or at least did not have until now, is power. He entered politics dramatically and suddenly in October 2011, saying that he was forced to do so by Saakashvili's despotic behavior and his Soviet-style rule.
He made his fortune in Russia in the 90s (banking, pharmaceuticals, real estate) but says he has now sold two-thirds of his assets in Russia, although he still owns a large part of Gazprom.
The government accuses him of being a Russian agent, although he vehemently denies this. His sentence that "Putin's Russia is freer than Saakashvili's Georgia" is well known.
Bonus video:
