*

Georgian Dream wins 54% of vote, electoral commission says

*

Opposition parties reject results, alleging violations

*

OSCE reports ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation and

bribes

(Adds seat total, Georgian Dream comment on observers,

opposition party comments, Orban visit in paragraphs 3, 6-7,

10-11, 23)

By Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Georgia's ruling party won

nearly 54% of the vote in Saturday's parliamentary election, the

electoral commission said on Sunday, as opposition parties

disputed the result and vote monitors reported significant

violations.

The result, with almost all precincts counted, was a blow

for pro-Western Georgians who had cast the election as a choice

between a ruling party that has deepened ties with Russia and an

opposition aiming to fast-track integration with Europe.

Ruling Georgian Dream, now headed for a fourth term in

office, will take 89 seats in parliament, one less than it

secured in 2020, the commission said, with four pro-Western

opposition parties receiving 61 seats in total.

A series of violations were reported on Sunday by three

separate monitoring missions - the 57-nation Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), another comprising

two U.S. nonprofit groups - the National Democratic Institute

and the International Republican Institute, and a Georgian

election monitor, ISFED.

The groups said the alleged violations, including

ballot-stuffing, bribery, voter intimidation and violence near

polling stations, could have affected the result but stopped

short of calling the outcome fraudulent.

"We continue to express deep concerns about the democratic

backsliding in Georgia," said Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White, head

of the European Parliament's delegation to the OSCE mission.

"The conduct of yesterday's election is unfortunately

evidence to that effect," he told reporters.

The electoral commission did not respond immediately to

requests for comment, but on Saturday hailed a free and fair

election. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the observers'

conclusions showed there was no doubt about the election's

legitimacy.

The four pro-Western opposition parties said they did not

recognise the results, and some members pledged to boycott the

new parliament and called for supporters to take to the streets.

Coalition for Change opposition party leader Nika Gvaramia

called the vote "a constitutional coup" and a "usurpation of

power". His party cited two exit polls that showed the

opposition winning a majority of seats in parliament.

The leader of the United National Movement opposition party,

Tina Bokuchava, said the election had been "stolen", calling for

protests.

EU EXPANSION CHALLENGE

Georgian Dream's reclusive billionaire founder Bidzina

Ivanishvili, who campaigned heavily on keeping Georgia out of

the war in Ukraine, hailed the party's victory on Saturday night

after its strongest performance since 2012.

Electoral commission data showed it winning by huge margins

of up to 90% in some rural areas, though it underperformed in

bigger cities.

Georgian Dream says it wants Georgia to join the European

Union, though Brussels says the Caucasus country's membership

application is frozen over what it says are the party's

authoritarian tendencies.

It has pushed through a law on "foreign agents" and another

curbing LGBT rights, both of which drew strong criticism from

Western countries but were praised by some Russian officials.

For years, Georgia was one of the most pro-Western countries

to emerge from the Soviet Union, with polls showing many

Georgians disliking Russia for its support of two breakaway

regions of their country.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief war over the rebel

province of South Ossetia in 2008. Georgia was defeated.

But the election result poses a challenge to the EU's

ambition to bring in more ex-Soviet states.

Last week, Moldova voted narrowly to approve its EU

accession in a vote that Moldovan officials said was marred by

Russian interference.

An EU official told Reuters there was "a sense of

disappointment" over the Georgian opposition's performance, but

Brussels was primarily concerned about a contested result

leading to a standoff.

The German, Estonian, Latvian foreign ministries said they

were concerned by the reports of electoral irregularities.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was quick to

congratulate Georgian Dream, planned to visit the country on

Monday, the Georgian government said.