TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Two exit polls in Georgia's parliamentary election show the ruling party in the lead, but the polls differ sizably on the margin of victory.
A poll conducted for Georgia's public broadcaster and other stations showed the ruling Georgian Dream party with nearly 54 percent of the vote and the opposition United National Movement at 19.5 percent support.
But an exit poll for the independent channel Rustav-2 put the figures at 39.9 percent for the ruling party and 32.7 percent for the opposition.
The discrepancy could feed tensions after a campaign that included a car bombing of one prominent opposition politician and shots fired at another candidate.
About 100 assailants attacked a polling station Saturday in the town of Marneuli, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the capital, Tbilisi. Police said the assailants were supporters of the UNM.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
An undercurrent of political violence is unsettling voters in Georgia as they elect members of parliament on Saturday from a field that includes candidates from the country's two main parties and a bewildering array of nearly two dozen other groups.
It's unlikely that the election's outcome will dim the former Soviet republic's determination to integrate more closely with the West, including its distant hopes of joining the European Union and NATO.
"These elections are a very important step forward toward reinforcing Georgia's image as a democratic European state," Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said after casting his ballot.
But the contest highlights the often disorderly political climate in the country that has endured revolutions both violent and peaceful over the past three decades.
In all, 25 parties or groupings are competing for the 77 seats that will be chosen by party-list voting, or proportional representation; more than 800 candidates are vying for the 73 single-district seats.
The governing Georgian Dream coalition and the United National Movement appear certain to be the largest vote-getters; polling suggests each getting around 25 percent support. Only one other party appears likely to clear the 5 percent support required to be allotted party list seats.
Each of the two main parties carries substantial baggage. Georgian Dream, which came to power in the 2012 elections, is the creation of tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister who appeared prominently in the "Panama Papers" leak about officials with offshore accounts.
Adding to the tensions, one of the campaign's most prominent figures has been Mikhail Saakashvili, the former president who was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after he became leader of one of Ukraine's most troubled regions.
Saakashvili is vowing a triumphant return if his United National Movement supporters in Georgia win power. Ukraine's charge d'affaires was summoned to the Georgian presidential administration on Thursday for a formal complaint about Saakashvili interfering in the country's internal politics.
Although Ivanishvili does not currently hold office, he is believed to wield enormous influence. Many Georgians consider him a Trojan horse for Russia because of his business connections there and his attempts to improve relations with Moscow, which were badly damaged by the brief 2008 war between the two countries
Saakashvili, whom Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, is a divisive figure.
While Saakashvili and the UNM are credited with enacting important police and economic reforms after the peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003, opposition to him grew for being hot-tempered and uncompromising.
He had to address the rally in Tbilisi through a video linkup because he left the country after his term ended in 2013, then was charged in absentia with abuse of office. Saakashvili, declared that if UNM regains power in Georgia, "I will cross the sea" to return to his homeland.
Georgian Dream continued the reform path Saakashvili laid and this year achieved an agreement with the European Union that boosts trade and political relations. But Georgia remains troubled by high unemployment of about 12 percent, low pensions and other economic concerns.
The tensions underlying the election surfaced in violent incidents over the past week.
On Sunday, two people were wounded by gunshots at a campaign rally for candidate and former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili. He claimed the gunmen were affiliated with Georgian Dream.
An explosion destroyed the automobile of lawmaker Givi Targamadze, a Saakashvili ally, on Tuesday.
"We have noticed in the past couple days - that event in Gori and a car bomb - that tension is increasing, but we hope that all the parties will do their best in order not to have a tense election day," said Guglielmo Pucci, head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe contingent monitoring the election.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said Friday that police had identified a suspect In the bombing of Targamadze's car and that weapons and explosives had been seized as part of the investigation.
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Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.