Georgian Dream lead in the country's local elections with nearly all the votes counted - but opposition parties have questioned the integrity of the elections.

The ruling party gained 46.6 percent of the counted votes, while the main opposition, the United National Movement (UNM), has just over 30 percent.

Georgian Dream said in a statement that the closely-watched elections "were held at the highest democratic standards."

But observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia's ruling party had an "undue advantage" and the vote was "marred by widespread and consistent allegations of intimidation, vote-buying, pressure on candidates and voters, and an unlevel playing field."

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Saturday's municipal elections held particular significance because of the country's on-going political crisis.

They came after the UNM boycotted the country's parliament for months after disputing the results of last year's elections. 

The EU then brokered a cross-party agreement between the UNM and the Georgian Dream. It called for a snap election if the ruling party gained less than 43 percent of the votes from these local elections.

Georgian Dream eventually pulled out of this agreement, but according to the results on Sunday, they have managed to exceed this requirement.

But opposition parties have also accused the ruling party of voter fraud and Giorgi Baramidze, a member of the UNM, told AFP "the elections' credibility has already been undermined by the fact that the leader of the opposition was first forced into exile and then arrested," referring to the country's former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

He was arrested after secretly returning from exile on Friday to galvanize voters for the opposition. Saakashvili originally left the country after Georgian Dream won the presidency in 2014.

Saakashvili was then given a six-year prison sentence in his absence for abuse of power. He had denied wrongdoing and claimed the charges were politically motivated.

On October 30, several major Georgian cities, including its capital Tbilisi, will hold run-off elections between candidates from the UNM and the Georgian Dream to determine their mayors.