Ruling party in ex-Soviet Georgia leads municipal elections

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Near-final results from nationwide municipal elections in Georgia show the ruling party well ahead of challengers, but the mayoral contests in the country’s five largest cities likely will need runoffs. The Central Elections Commission said Sunday that the tally from more than 99% of the vote showed the ruling Georgian Dream party with about 47% of the overall vote. The main opposition party United National Movement garnered 31% and array of other parties were in single digits. Georgian Dream this spring signed a European Union-brokered agreement to call an early election for the national parliament if its share of the municipal elections vote was less than 43%, but later withdrew from it.