Central Electoral Commission of Georgia: Saakashvili - 55.23%, Gachechiladze - 23.86%

According to the data of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia, received from 285 out of 3512 polling stations, as of 2:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. Moscow time), the rating of Mikhail Saakashvili went down a little as a whole for the country and made 55.23% of the votes of all the electors. The rating of Levan Gachechiladze, candidate from the United Opposition increased up to 23.86%.

Further, according to the CEC's preliminary data, the votes of the Georgian electorate are distributed as follows:
- Businessman Arkadiy (Badri) Patarkatsishvili - 12,589 votes (6.55%);
- Leader of the Labour Party of Georgia Shalva Natelashvili - 8,702 votes (4.52%);
- Leader of the "New Right-Wingers" David Gamkrelidze - 6,728 votes (3.5%);
- Leader of the "Party of the Future" Georgiy Maisashvili - 1,423 votes (0.74%);
- Leader of the "Hope" Party Irina Sarishvili-Chanturiya - 318 votes (0.17%).

Thus, according to official data, so far, Mikhail Saakashvili continues to be in the lead at presidential election in Georgia with a great breakaway from other candidates. We remind you that earlier data of the CEC had shown 61.52% of votes for Saakashvili, and 21.26% - for Gachechiladze.

It is expected that the first official statement about the preliminary results of voting at early election of President of Georgia will be made today by the Central Electoral Commission at about 6:00-7:00 p.m. local time (5:00-6:00 p.m. Moscow time).

The "Caucasian Knot" has already informed that according to the "Exit Poll-2008", which was financed by four Georgian TV Companies and held on January 5, on the voting day for President of Georgia, Saakashvili won 53.8% of votes.

However, according to the exit polls conducted by the Ukrainian Information-Analytical Centre "All-European Case", none of the candidates had won more than 50% of votes, which is necessary to become the winner after the first round of election, but Levan Gachechiladze was the leader with 31% of votes of all the Georgian voters who cast their ballots.

Meanwhile, the United Opposition of Georgia is already gathering a protest rally against the election outcomes. One of the leaders of the opposition Georgiy Khaindrava has stated that the meeting will bring together 100,000 persons.