TBILISI: Georgia’s newly elected President Salome Zurabishvili on Thursday hailed her victory as a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe for the ex-Soviet republic.

With all votes counted, the country’s election commission said the French-born former diplomat, bac­ked by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had taken 59.52 per cent of the second-round vote.

Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakas­­hvili’s United Natio­nal Move­ment, took 40.48 per cent.

The opposition denounced the election as a fraud. But while raising some serious concerns, foreign observers said the vote was “competitive” and well-run.

“It is now important to show that this country has chosen Europe,” Zura­bish­vili told journalists after her win. “For that purpose, Geor­gians have elected a European woman president.”

“It feels great,” she added, pointing out that she was one of a small number of women presidents in the world. The election was seen as a test of Georgia’s democratic creden­tials as it seeks Euro­pean Union and Nato membership.

“(The) election was competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely; however one side enjoyed an undue advantage,” monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a report after the vote.

The elections were “well administered”, they said, but raised concerns about misuse of administrative resources that “blurred the line between party and state”.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018