Election win for Russia-friendly party in Georgia sets the stage for protests and possible violence

Mass protests are expected in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Monday after the ruling, Russia-friendly party Georgian Dream claimed victory in a contentious parliamentary election this weekend.

The increasingly authoritarian party that's been in power for the last 12 years claimed another election win following the vote on Saturday, but the country's pro-Western president and opposition parties have refused to accept the results, saying the vote was neither free, nor fair.

The country's pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili called on the public to protest in central Tbilisi Monday evening, saying the opposition will not tolerate "election fraud" and that "nobody can take away Georgia's European future," according to comments reported by Georgia's Interpress news agency.

Georgia's central election commission said on its website Monday that Georgian Dream had won 53.9% of the vote with 99% of the country's voting districts counted. Georgia has a lively opposition movement but it is fractured, with its four largest opposition coalitions each garnering around 8-11% of the vote.

Voter polls in the run up to the election painted a conflicting view of which way the vote could go as pro-government and pro-opposition TV networks broadcast conflicting exit polls as to the initial result of the election.

The election was seen as a pivotal moment for the former Soviet republic, and perhaps its most important vote since independence following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the ballot seen as a choice on whether to remain within Russia's orbit, or to pursue previously-stated ambitions to join the European Union (EU) and NATO.

While Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Georgian Dream's billionaire founder Bidzina