Ex-diplomat Zurabishvili elected Georgia’s first woman president
Ruling party candidate is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris
Georgia has elected ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili as its first woman president, results showed yesterday, but the opposition claimed fraud and called for supporters to take to the streets.
With 99.9 per cent of ballots counted, the French-born exdiplomat had taken 59.61 per cent of the vote in Wednesday’s second round of the election.
Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled expresident Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), was on 40.46 per cent.
The election was seen as a test of Georgia’s democratic credentials as the Caucasus nation seeks European Union and Nato membership. It was also a trial run for more important parliamentary polls in 2020, when the ruling Georgian Dream party is set to face off against opposition parties.
Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old independent lawmaker, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the annexation by the Red Army. Her career in France’s foreign service culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where thenpresident Saakashvili appointed her foreign minister.