PM ally set to win Georgian presidency: exit polls

TBILISI: An ally of billionaire Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili was set to win a crushing first-round victory in a presidential poll to succeed Mikheil Saakashvili, an exit poll from privately-owned Rustavi 2 television station said Sunday. Giorgi Margvelashvili, a little-known academic from Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, was on 66.7 percent of the vote in the ex-Soviet state, well ahead of former parliament speaker David Bakradze of Saakashvili's United National Movement party on 20.2 percent, according to the exit poll. Another preliminary poll for privately-owned Imedi channel gave Margvelashvili an even bigger margin of victory, 68 percent against 17.1 percent for Bakradze. The vote calls time on US-ally Saakashvili's decade in power and his fractious year-long cohabitation with arch-enemy Ivanishvili, who has promised to also step down in the coming weeks. Stakes were lower this time round in the Western-backed Caucasus republic of some 4.5 million as constitutional changes will see the next president cede many key powers to the prime minister after the vote. According to the most recent figures from the election commission, turnout was at 39 percent three hours before polls closed. Fireworks lit up the Tbilisi evening sky just after the announcement of the exit poll results.