Georgia elects Salome Zurabishvili as first woman president

Salome Zurabishvili has won Georgia's presidential election, becoming the first woman to hold the office. The 66-year-old took 59.6 per cent of Wednesday's vote after 99 per cent of ballots had been counted, the country's election commission said early Thursday, while her rival, Grigol Vashadze, also a former foreign minister, took 40.4 per cent.

Zurabishvili was backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party while Vashadze was a united opposition candidate.

"The country made a fundamental decision today," Zurabishvili said, according to a television station. "We all, definitively and firmly, said no to the past."

She said she would now seek dialogue with those who had not supported her in the presidential race.

The new president is set to take office in mid-December.

Zurabishvili, was born in Paris after her parents fled Georgia in 1921 following its annexation by Soviet forces.

She took up a career in the French foreign service and was posted to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, as ambassador in 2003. She later gave up her post and the then-president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, appointed her foreign minister.

Zurabishvili has said she favours balancing Georgia's relations with Russia and the West. Vashadze - who was foreign minister during the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia - was seen as more pro-Western.

Western countries are also watching the vote in a country seeking European Union and Nato membership.

The opposition has complained of voting irregularities and attacks on its campaigners, but this has been denied by the ruling party.

International observers said the first round of voting last month was held on an "uneven playing field".

Turnout was around 66 per cent of Georgia's 3.5 million voters. Outgoing President Giorgi Margvelashvili declined to run.

The vote marked the last time Georgians directly elected the president, as the country is set to convert to a parliamentary republic.

The next presidential election is to be conducted by an electoral college including Parliament members.