President Mikheil Saakashvili claimed victory today in Georgia's parliamentary poll, which Europe's main election watchdog said was "generally positive" despite cases of intimidation.
Saakashvili said voting was free and fair but the opposition said the authorities had rigged Wednesday's vote and vowed to challenge by calling street protests.
The pro-Western president needs a clean election to persuade sceptical European states that it is worth defying Russian objections by making Georgia, a key transit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea to Europe, a NATO member.
President Mikheil Saakashvili has been accused of trying to rig the election
"Election day was overall calm and generally assessed positively," the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's vote monitor said in a statement.
"There were numerous allegations of intimidation some of which could be verified."
The democratic credentials of the 40-year-old leader were tarnished when he sent riot troops to crush protests last November. He won a snap January presidential election which critics said was rigged.
"These elections were not perfect but since I was here in January for the presidential elections concrete and substantial progress has been made," said Joao Soares, coordinator of the OSCE short term observer team. "Problems and much work remain."
Saakashvili said his United National Movement could get close to a constitutional majority -- or two-thirds of the seats -- in parliament. Partial results showed his party won more than 61 percent of the vote.
"Yesterday was the triumph of the will of the Georgian people," Saakashvili said in an address to the nation.
"No-one can raise their hand against the will of the Georgian people."
"Even I was astonished by the big level of support which we got in these parliamentary elections," he added.
But the opposition said voters had been intimidated by local officials and police and that the media had been dominated by coverage of the ruling party.
"This was a criminal election," David Gamkrelidze, one opposition leader said.
"We together with the people must achieve the cancellation of the election results and the calling of a new parliamentary election."