Georgian Dream Party supporters celebrate the exit poll results in Tbilisi on Saturday. Diego Fedele / Getty ImagesPresident Salome Zourabichvili spoke the day after the vote, which the electoral commission said the ruling party had won. The Georgian Dream party clinched nearly 54% of the vote, the commission said, as opposition parties contested the result and vote monitors reported significant violations. Georgian Dream has become increasingly authoritarian over the past year, adopting laws similar to those used by Russia to crack down on speech. Despite that, Georgian Dream has adopted Russia-style laws and many Georgians fear the government is distancing the country from the West and into Moscow’s orbit.

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Persons: Diego Fedele, Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s, ”, Zourabichvili, Antonio López, White, Charles Michel, “, Irakli Kobakhidze, ” Hungary’s Victor Orbán, Tiko Gelashvili, Natia Seskuria Organizations: European Union, Georgian Dream Party, Getty, European, Sunday, Georgian, The United National Movement, Regional Institute for Security Studies, AP Locations: United States, Russia, Europe, Tbilisi, Georgian, Russian, Brussels, South Caucasus, ”, Georgia, Tiko, Georgia’s, Moscow, Soviet Union, Javakheti