Salome Zurabishvili has emerged as Georgia’s first female president after an election the opposition has described as a “fraud.”
Punch reports that Zurabishbili, with 59.52 percent of the votes in a second round of elections, defeated Grigol Vashadz who had 40.48% of the votes.

Zurabishvili, a former ambassador to France, ran on the ticket of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which is backed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The election has been seen as a test of democracy for Georgia, as the country seeks the membership of the European Union and NATO.

Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili who leads the alliance of 11 opposition parties that backed Vashadz, said of Ivanishvili: “The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections.”