Presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili attends a news briefing dedicated to the results of the presidential election at her campaign headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia November 28, 2018. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

TBILISI (Reuters) - The ruling party-backed candidate Salome Zurabishvili leads in Georgia’s presidential runoff, preliminary results from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed.

French-born Zurabishvili had 57.97 percent of the vote in the runoff, held on Wednesday, and her opposition rival Grigol Vashadze 42.03 percent based on results from 49 percent of the polling stations, the CEC said on its website.