Parliament speaker Kobakhidze on Elections: "It is clear there will be runoff"

The Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze has said there will be a runoff for the Presidential Elections of Georgia, as the Central Election Commission is counting votes cast by citizens of the country.

Speaking at the Georgian Dream party offices late in the night, Kobakhidze said the party's own data, based on results from 1,000 polling stations, had indicated the likelihood for the runoff.

We are receiving results from our representatives [based on which] Salome Zurabishvili is leading at this point.

By this stage, it has been revealed and is clear that there will be a runoff involving Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze", Kobakhidze said at the press briefing.

The Parliamentary Speaker said Zurabishvili missed out on winning in the first round "by a little" but that his party was "confident" of the candidate taking the eventual victory in the runoff.

Kobakhidze commented on differences between party exit polls and results from the CEC, noting refusal to indicate to the polls which candidate they had voted for, by "around 44 percent" of voters.

The CEC is counting votes from the Elections and expects to announce preliminary, official results at around 2am local time.

Results from the Elections can be seen live - as they are announced in stages by the CEC - on Agenda.ge interactive map. The map enables visitors to select turnout statistics and voting results based on administrative districts throughout Georgia.