Georgia's election chief confirms ruling party's win after incident

Georgia's election commission on Saturday confirmed the ruling party's parliamentary victory after a meeting disrupted by an opposition politician throwing paint at the commission chairman.

David Kirtadze, member of former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), splashed black paint on Central Election Commission chairman, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, resulting in an eye injury, a video broadcast on local TV channels showed.

The ministry of internal affairs said it launched an investigation into the incident.

Kalandarishvili came back to the meeting with a plaster on his left eye, having signed a protocol that confirms the ruling, pro-Russian Georgian Dream party as the winner of the Oct. 26 election.

The party received 53.9% of the ballot, winning 89 seats in a 150-seat parliament, Georgian media reported.

After the vote, supporters of opposition parties staged several protests in Tbilisi, alleging election fraud.

Two U.S. polling firms have said the official election results suggest manipulation because they diverged so sharply in favour of Georgian Dream from exit polls the companies conducted for pro-opposition television channels.

Opponents of Georgian Dream say it wants to steer the Caucasus nation away from Europe and back into Russia's orbit.

But the party says it wants to protect the country from subversive foreign influence and from being dragged into war with Russia like Ukraine.

It says it remains committed to seeking a future in the European Union, but the EU says it has frozen Georgia's membership application because of concerns about democratic decline.