Elections 2016: Georgian Dream celebrates victory

All voting stations have closed across Georgia and the ruling party has started celebrating after the party’s own poll and initial exit poll results showed it gained the most support.

Both exit poll results released by local TV companies showed Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party enjoyed the highest number of votes in today’s Parliamentary Elections.

Party leaders, including Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, went out into the square in front of the party’s headquarters in central Tbilisi and congratulated GDDG supporters on the "big victory”.

This was a truly free and fair election, which firmly cements #Georgia’s democracy. The real winners today are the Georgian people. #gvote

— Giorgi Kvirikashvili (@KvirikashviliGi) October 8, 2016

Kvirikashvili said the final results were yet to come from the Central Election Commission (CEC) but Georgian Dream was the winner of the elections according to all preliminary data.

"We gained this victory as a result of a big struggle. Thank you very much, Georgia,” the PM said.

"Today Georgia has once again answered the question whether or not human dignity is the most important thing to us and the answer is yes, of course, it is.”

"I would like to thank you for supporting us and promise you that the next four years will be the years of building.”

Georgian Dream supporters celebrate the election outcome on front of the party's headquarters in Tbilisi. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

The Prime Minister went to Twitter to thank local and international observers for their efforts to ensure peaceful elections.

A special thanks to all foreign and domestic election observers for their commitment to #Georgia’s democracy. #GVotehttps://t.co/vJGxSN9pi5

— Giorgi Kvirikashvili (@KvirikashviliGi) October 8, 2016

GDDG founder and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili also addressed supporters from the party headquarters this evening.

"This is a continuation of our victory in 2012."

"Five years ago we started [our activities] and we all remember what the situation was at that time in Georgia .[…] Today Georgia is competing with leading European countries in terms of democratic and human rights and values. Now [we have] the best conditions for fast development of our economy.”

Meanwhile the Administration of the Prime Minister of Georgia assessed the elections as a "successful vote”.

"The Georgian vote has taken place without any major incidents,” it said.

"At a few polling places issues arose in the final hours before polls closed [but] they were addressed swiftly and effectively to prevent disruption of the political process.”

Meanwhile exit poll results showed the second most popular party in Georgia was United National Movement.

The vote-counting process has now begun at the CEC.

Full preliminary results are expected at 6am local time tomorrow.