TBILISI, October 4. /TASS/. Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia has won Saturday’s local elections in the country, with 46.69% of the vote, the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Monday after counting ballots from 100% of polling stations.

The opposition United National Movement, founded by ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili, finished second, with 30.7% of the votes. It is followed by ex-Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia’s For Georgia party, which scored 7.8% of the votes.

Local elections were held in Georgia on Saturday. Voters were to elect local legislatures and mayors of 64 municipalities, including the capital city Tbilisi. As many as 43 parties took part in the elections. The voter turnout by the polling stations closing time was 51.92%

According to the CEC’s preliminary data, runoff mayoral elections will be held in 20 municipalities, since neither of the candidates managed to win more than 50% of votes. The runoff election will be organized in the capital city of Tbilisi, where incumbent Mayor Kakha Kaladze, nominated by the ruling party, is winning 45.03% and his closest rival, Nika Melia of the National Movement, has 33.98% The runoff elections will be held in Georgia on October 30.

Thus, the ruling party has managed to win more than 43% of votes and no early parliamentary polls will be called in the country. Under the April 19 agreement with the opposition, mediated by European Council President Charles Michel, the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia undertook to call early parliamentary polls in the spring of 2022 if it failed to score 43% of votes at the local elections. However, the ruling party leader, Irakly Kobakhidze, said in July that the party was withdrawing from the deal. Nevertheless, the opposition claimed that the ruling party would all the same have to organize early parliamentary elections if it failed to wine more than 43% of votes.