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TBILISI: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's party was set to win a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, a disputed exit poll showed, but the opposition denounced the vote as rigged.
Saakashvili's United National Movement won more than 63 percent of the vote, followed by the United Opposition Council with more than 14 percent, according to the exit poll by a group of leading Georgian think tanks.
"The exit poll is the first sign that these elections were rigged," United Opposition Council leader Levan Gachechiladze, runner-up against Saakashvili in a presidential vote in January, said after the results were released.
Gachechiladze spokeswoman Magda Popiashvili said the opposition had called on its supporters to refuse to answer exit polls, "so its outcome cannot be seen as credible and representative."
David Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights party, a member of the United Opposition Council, said: "The opposition won these elections.... These elections had nothing in common with freedom and fairness."
Preliminary results were expected to be released overnight on Thursday.
Up to 1,000 protesters rallied in the Georgian capital after the vote - a far more modest than the tens of thousands that opposition leaders has said would take to the streets to contest the elections.
The vote was seen as a test of ex-Soviet Georgia's democratic credentials as the country seeks Western support in a bitter stand-off with Russia over Moscow's backing for the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Earlier this month Saakashvili said Georgia had come close to war with Russia and warned there was still a risk of conflict after Moscow boosted ties with separatists and sent hundreds of extra peacekeeping troops to Abkhazia.
Highlighting the tensions, Georgia accused Abkhaz rebel forces on Wednesday of shooting at voters with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in a volatile border area, injuring four as they headed to polls.
Abkhazia's self-declared leader, Sergei Bagapsh, denied the claim.
"The whole world, both our friends and ill-wishers, are watching what is happening in Georgia during these elections," Saakashvili told journalists after he cast his ballot.
"Georgia is in a very difficult international situation. Under such pressure and blackmail, it is a test for Georgian democracy to hold well-organised and calm elections."
The opposition was already alleging before polls closed that a number of its activists had been beaten at polling stations and that one had been shot dead. Officials confirmed the shooting, but denied it was connected with the vote.
David Bakradze, a former foreign minister who is leading Saakashvili's party in the election, accused the opposition of trying to undermine the vote.
"Some opposition forces are staging provocations to create the impression that there are serious violations in the voting process," he said.
The main Western election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, had sent 550 observers to monitor the polling and was to deliver a verdict on Thursday.
The exit poll indicated that as well as the United National Movement and United Opposition Council, two other parties had entered parliament - the Christian Democratic Party and the Labour Party.
A country of soaring mountains, wine and ancient churches, Georgia has suffered civil wars and sustained political turmoil since gaining independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Saakashvili has been praised as a democratic reformer since coming to power in 2004, but he was criticised last November after sending riot police to suppress an opposition protest and briefly imposing martial law.
His subsequent re-election in a snap presidential vote this January was also marred by opposition allegations of fraud.
About 3.4 million people were registered to vote and three hours before polls closed turnout had reached 41.53 percent, election officials said. - AFP/de
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