PUTIN HELPED SAAKASHVILI

Circumstances

The party in power, the National Movement, won the elections again, and the blockade of Georgia announced by Russia played an important role in this. According to the preliminary results of the elections to local authorities of Georgia on October 5, the ruling party...

The party in power, the National Movement, won the elections again, and the blockade of Georgia announced by Russia played an important role in this.

According to the preliminary results of the elections to local authorities of Georgia on October 5, the party in power "National Movement" received more than 66 percent of the vote. The results of the opposition parties are much more modest, and the representation of oppositionists in self-government bodies will look even more modest.

The opposition bloc Davitashvili, Khidasheli, Berdzenishvili, which includes former associates of Mikheil Saakashvili in the Rose Revolution, won about 12 percent of the vote. In second place is the Labor Party, with just over 10 percent. This is followed by the Topadze, Industrialists bloc with 6 percent, the Way of Georgia party led by former Foreign Minister Samome Zurabishvili with less than 3 percent, and the little-known National Ideology Party with 0.2 percent.

Approximately the same picture is given by "exit polls" and the results of parallel counting of votes conducted by NGOs.