Georgian Leader Shevardnadze Confident as He Casts Ballot
Pulling up to a voting station in his bulletproof Mercedes, Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze cast his ballot Sunday to pick a new president and Parliament in an election he hoped to win.
Flashing a confident smile at applauding bystanders, Shevardnadze voted at a teachers college in Tbilisi’s Vake district.
“There’s one name I know. I’ll mark that one,” he joked before disappearing behind the yellow curtains of a voting booth, having jumped the long line of waiting voters.
About 3.2 million Georgians were eligible to vote in Sunday’s elections, which will also decide the makeup of a new, 235-seat Parliament. Preliminary results are expected early today.
Five candidates competed for the presidency, and nearly 3,000 were running for Parliament. Elections in 10 of Georgia’s 85 electoral districts have been postponed indefinitely because they are in the secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Turnout by midafternoon was a lackluster 45.05%--and 50% turnout was needed for the vote to be valid.
Shevardnadze, 67, the ex-Soviet foreign minister, campaigned as the guarantor of Georgia’s fragile stability.
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