Georgia’s pro-Russian ruling party has won a major election, the election commission said. With more than 99 percent of the vote counted, the Georgian Dream party has won 54.2 percent of the vote, according to the body monitoring the vote. Pro-Western opposition parties have already denounced preliminary results showing the ruling party’s victory as fraudulent.

The Central Election Commission reported that after counting the votes from 3,100 polling stations out of a total of 3,111, Georgian Dream received 54.08%. The other four opposition parties that exceeded the 5% threshold were: Coalition for Change with 10.92%, United National Movement with 10.12%, Strong Georgia with 8.72% and For Georgia with 7.76%.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has rejected allegations of fraud raised by opposition forces in the parliamentary elections won by his party. He said that such claims were nothing more than an attempt to “justify” their political failure. “It is technically impossible to carry out any manipulation when elections are held via electronic voting,” Kobakhidze stressed. Regarding possible demonstrations against the election results, he added that “the opposition does not have the resources to organize protests and therefore the first session of the Parliament will take place soon and all the activities of the country will continue as usual.”

Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on his X page that the apparent tampering with the results would make it impossible to recognize the legitimacy of the Georgian elections. He warned that voter fraud would not lead to aspirations for membership in the European Union but would instead risk returning to Russian influence.