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The leading candidates in Georgia's October 27 presidential election are (from left) Giorgi Margvelashvili ("Georgian Dream"), Davit Bakradze (United National Movement), and former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze.
The leading candidates in Georgia's October 27 presidential election are (from left) Giorgi Margvelashvili ("Georgian Dream"), Davit Bakradze (United National Movement), and former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze.

Liveblog: Georgia Votes For President

RFE/RL's coverage of the Georgian presidential vote as it happened.

Overview

-- Exit poll results show Giorgi Margvelashvili winning outright victory. He is projected to win 67 to 68 percent of the vote, with the closest runner up, Davit Bakradze earning 17-20 percent. Bakradze has conceded defeat.

-- Turnout was 46.6 percent -- a steep drop, compared to parliamentary elections last year, when 60.8 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. There were some 3.5 million eligible voters.

-- There were 23 candidates standing in today's poll, but most attention focused on three candidates: Giorgi Margvelashvili, representing the Georgian Dream coalition and handpicked by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili; Davit Bakradze, a member of President Mikhail Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM); and Nino Burjanadze, the leader of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia party.

-- Consitutional reforms, which concentrate most power in the hands of the prime minister, will take effect following today's vote. Ivanishvili has said he will retire by the end of this year, but has not said whom he will appoint as his successor.

-- Glenn Kates

12:47 27.10.2013
Statements from the main contenders in English, via Reuters (will update with video as it becomes available).

Margvelashvili: "I voted for the future prosperity of this country, for the future of our nation and for a better tomorrow."

Bakradze: "I voted for a better future of this country; I voted for Georgia's European choice. I voted for a government which is [supervised] and which works for the people, and I voted for a united Georgia which is strong, which is European and which is Democratic."

Burjanadze: "All preliminary results, real results -- not manipulated, not [falsified] results -- prove that there should be a runoff, and there is no chance for Mr. Margvelashvili to win in the first round. So, I'm not afraid to participate in the runoff because I'm absolutely sure that in free and fair elections, I will win in the first round or in the second round."
13:09 27.10.2013
As of 3PM local time, 32 percent of eligible voters had cast a vote, according to the Central Election Commission. A sharp drop from last year, when 45 percent had voted by this time.
13:41 27.10.2013
Our Georgian Service spoke with some Georgians crossing from the breakaway territory of Abhkazia into Georgia proper. They said there were not planning on voting today.

14:26 27.10.2013
The Central Election Commission reports turnout at 5PM local time was 39 percent. It was 53 percent at the same time last year.
14:31 27.10.2013
14:58 27.10.2013
Three men in a car with South Ossetian license plates shouted insults and threatened a Georgian reporter for Maeastro TV, who was reporting live from the border fence with the breakaway region of South Ossetia. One man got out of the car and threatened to shoot the cameraman if he pointed his camera at him.

15:16 27.10.2013
The leading candidates voting today (comments to media in English).

Leading Georgian Candidates Cast Votes
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0:00 0:01:31 0:00
15:28 27.10.2013
From Transparency International observers. It's official -- a Soviet passport does not suffice as identification in Georgia.

15:42 27.10.2013
16:01 27.10.2013
Polls are closed. Exit polls coming shortly.

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