georgia general election, pro-russian ruling party majority...controversy over election fraud

The current pro-Russian ruling party defeated the pro-Western opposition coalition to win a majority of votes in the Georgia general election, which was held on the 26th local time.According to

Reuters, Georgia's Election Commission said the ruling "Georgia's Dream" won 54% of the vote, based on more than 99% of the votes counted.

"This success in difficult situations is rare in the world and an indicator of the outstanding capacity of the Georgian people," said Vidzina Ivanishvili, the ruling party's leader.

Georgia's ruling party is pro-Russian, and in June it was following Russian legislation to tighten control over the media and non-governmental organizations.

It has also opposed the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's push to join the bloc, and has been at odds with the pro-Western opposition.

The opposition parties, which failed to change their government, said they would not accept the election results, saying there were several clues to fraudulent elections.

Nika Gbaramia, head of the opposition Alliance for Change, criticized this as a "constitutional coup" and another opposition United National Movement party said it would not "accept the fabricated results of the election commission."

International watchdog groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the National Institute for Democracy, a U.S. non-profit organization, also said there were serious misconduct during the voting process.

The groups argued that ballot box manipulation, bribery deals and voter threats may have affected the election.