ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION<br/> <br />Several thousand Georgian opposition supporters came to central streets of the capital Tbilisi late on Monday (October 1) to celebrate what they saw as the election win in a contentious parliamentary poll.<br/> <br />Both the opposition coalition Georgian Dream and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement (UNM) party claimed victory in a parliamentary election in the former Soviet republic, raising the prospect of a post-election standoff.<br/> <br />Any signs of instability in the Caucasus country of 4.5 million would worry the West because of its role as a conduit for Caspian Sea energy supplies to Europe and its pivotal location between Russia, Iran, Turkey and central Asia.<br/> <br />The private Imedi channel loyal to the government predicted billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream would win 50 percent of the ballots in party-list voting allocating 77 of the 150 seats in parliament, compared to 41 percent for Saakashvili's UNM.<br/> <br />A separate exit poll reported by the Georgian public broadcaster put Georgian Dream and UNM level at 33 percent. Two polls cited by pro-opposition channels put Georgian Dream far ahead.<br/> <br />But UNM said it believed it had won at least 53 of the 73 seats to be allotted in elections in individual constituencies.<br/> <br />Saakashvili says Ivanishvili would move Georgia away from the West and bring it back into Moscow's orbit. Ivanishvili, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $6.4 billion or nearly half the size of Georgia's economy, denies this.<br/> <br />Ivanishvili, who entered politics only a year ago, said he believed his six-party coalition would dominate the assembly.<br/> <br />Georgian Dream supporters celebrated in central Tbilisi, waving flags and honking car horns.<br/> <br />The first partial results are due in the early hours on Tuesday (October 2) but it was not clear when the final result would be known.
