Exit poll data differing at election in Georgia

According to the data of the exit poll conducted by four Georgian TV Companies, at the snap presidential election in Georgia held today, Mikhail Saakashvili is in the lead with an essential breakaway.

The IA "News-Georgia" reports that at the briefing tonight Giya Nodiya, representative of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, has stated that the exit poll was conducted by 900 observers and experts who interrogated 7,378 voters.

According to preliminary data of this exit poll, as of 4:00 p.m. 28.5 percent of the polled voters had cast their ballots for Levan Gachechiladze, 6.0 percent - for Arkadiy (Badri) Patarkatsishvili, 3.6 percent - for David Gamkrelidze, 5.5 percent - for Shalva Natelashvili, 52.5 percent - for Mikhail Saakashvili, 0.8 percent - for Georgiy Maisashvili, and 0.4 percent - for Irina Sarishvili-Chanturiya. 0.9 percent of the polled voters said that they had crossed out all the names in their ballot papers, thus having voted "against all". Meanwhile, 23 percent of the voters refused to answer the questions of the exit poll.

The final totals of this exit poll are expected by 11:00 p.m. local time.

Meanwhile, as the "Caucasian Knot" has informed earlier, at the presidential election held today in Georgia, according to the exit poll of the Ukrainian Information-Analytical Centre "All-European Case", none of the candidates has won over 50 percent of the votes, necessary to be announced the victor after the first round.

Gachechiladze has 31 percent of votes, Saakashvili - 24 percent. The third candidate in the list, according to this exit poll, is businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili with 20.3 percent of votes.