Opposition UNM party leader: “Election results are falsified”

"We believe the results of the elections are falsified,” says leader of opposition party United National Movement (UNM) Nika Melia.

Speaking to local media earlier today, Melia said the Georgian Government "used all methods, including stealing of ballot boxes to falsify the election results."

Melia thanked UNM party supporters all over the country for "defending their votes".

The leader of the opposition party, which gained the second highest number of votes behind ruling Georgian Dream party, announced UNM was now working on an "action plan”. 

He said this will be announced later today or tomorrow.

We are waiting for [UNM] regional leaders to arrive in capital Tbilisi and have consultations with them, and then we will make a final decision later," underlined Melia.

Political analyst and researcher of US-Georgia relations Lincoln Mitchell closely followed Georgia’s elections and vote, and offered his opinion on UNM’s future if the party decided to boycott the official election results. On his official Twitter account he said:

 

If #UNM actually boycotts parliament because they ran a poor campaign&didn't do their work,it'll badly damage their relationship w/ the west

— ((Lincoln Mitchell)) (@LincolnMitchell) 9 October 2016

Meanwhile, Georgia’s Central Election Commission said as of 6.50pm today, October 9, preliminary results for Georgia's Parliamentary Elections 2016 are:

• Georgian Dream – 48.61%
• United National Movement – 27.04%
• Alliance of Patriots – 4.99%

See the latest updated results of elections in real time on Agenda.ge's Online Interactive Map.