Georgia’s presidential election was competitive and professionally administered, the special co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, Kristian Vigenin, said.
He stressed that candidates were able to campaign freely and voters had a genuine choice, although there were instances of the misuse of state resources, and the involvement of senior state officials from the ruling party in campaigning was not always in line with the law.
Vigenin added that the "sharp polarization of the private media and a lack of analytical reporting limited voters’ ability to make a fully informed choice," according tot the international observers' preliminary statement released today.
According to the CEC, independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili, secured 38.66%, backed by about 615,000 voters, candidate of the former ruling party United National Movement Grigol Vashadze gained about 600,000 votes (37.7%), while candidate of the European Georgia party David Bakradze is ranked third with about 175,000 votes (10.97%) and leader of the Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili was backed by 3.76% of voters.
