Georgian Dream Party secures majority in parliamentary polls

Georgia's governing Georgian Dream party received more than 54 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election on Saturday, with more than 99 percent of precincts counted, the electoral commission said.

The Sunday's results are a blow to pro-Western Georgian parties, who had cast the election as a choice between a governing party that has deepened ties with Russia, and an opposition that had hoped to fast-track integration with the European Union.

Four pro-Western opposition groups agreed to form a coalition against the governing Dream Party.

Brussels warned that the election will determine European Union-candidate's chances of joining the bloc, while the Kremlin has condemned "Western interference" in the election campaign.

Georgian Dream said before the vote it was confident it could win a commanding majority of the 150-seat parliament, calling for a "maximum mobilisation" of its supporters.

Several local and international monitoring organisations, including the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), are expected to comment on the results on Sunday.

Between Russia and EU

Georgian Dream's founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, who had campaigned heavily on keeping Georgia out of the war in Ukraine, claimed success on Saturday night, with his party putting in its strongest performance since 2012 on the back of huge margins of up to 90 percent on rural areas.

"It is a rare case in the world that the same party achieves such success in such a difficult situation - this is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people," Ivanishvili told cheering supporters on Saturday night.

Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream says it wants Georgia to join the European Union, though Brussels says the country's membership application is frozen over what it says is Georgian Dream's policies.

In power since 2012, the Georgian Dream party initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda. But over the last two years, the party has reversed course.

Its campaign has centred on a theory about a "global war party" that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

Georgian Dream's adoption of a controversial "foreign influence" law this spring sparked street protests.

The move prompted Brussels to freeze Georgia's EU accession process, while Washington imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.