Shevardnadze Wins Georgia Presidency

Eduard A. Shevardnadze has been elected president by a landslide, according to preliminary results released Monday, in a vote that signaled confidence in a leader who has brought relative stability to a country recently rent by war.

“A triumph has been won by the forces of democracy,” Shevardnadze proclaimed in his weekly television address a day after simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections.

The initial ballot count gave Shevardnadze 75% of the vote, beating five other candidates. His closest opponent, Dzhumber Patiashvili, took 17%.

Final results of the parliamentary poll were not yet available, but Shevardnadze’s party, the Citizens Union, was well ahead in the race for the 235-seat Legislature, quelling fears that his nationalist and populist opponents would dominate the lawmaking forum.

In an interview on Election Day, Shevardnadze was relaxed and confident when asked about the future Parliament.

“If the opposition does have a majority, I’ll act in the same way President Clinton acts with a Republican Congress,” he said.

Turnout was high, with about 2.6 million of the 3.2 million eligible voters casting ballots.

The former Soviet foreign minister, now 67, took the reins of power in his native republic in 1992, as a bitter civil war was raging and after the previous head of state had been ousted in a coup.