On October 28, Georgian citizens will head to polls to elect their fifth president for a six-year term. This will be the last time that the head of state will be elected through direct ballot.
The Central Election Commission published the schedule of electoral activities on August 1, after incumbent President Giorgi Margevlashvili announced the election date.
Below are the key election dates and procedures set by the Election Code and approved by the Central Election Commission (CEC).
August 1 – The election date is officially set;
August 6 – CEC releases information on the number of voters and their breakdown by election districts; All stakeholders, including political parties, election observer organizations and individual voters, are given time until October 10 to verify the voters’ list and file for corrections. From October 13 to October 16, changes to the voters’ list can only be made through court ruling;
August 29 – The electoral campaign period officially kicks off with a whole set of legal obligations, among them restrictions on use of administrative resources;
September 8 – Deadline for parties/initiative groups to apply to CEC for candidate registration;
September 18 – Deadline for parties/initiative groups to submit the list of supporters (no less than 25,923) for candidate registration;
September 28 – CEC completes registration of presidential candidates;
October 4 – CEC publishes list of presidential candidates including their personal details (name, surname, date of birth, position, occupation, address);
October 18 – Deadline for local observer organizations to apply to CEC for registration;
October 21 – Deadline for international observer organizations to apply to CEC for registration;
October 23 – Deadline for CEC to release final data on total number of voters, following voters’ list corrections;
October 28 – Election Day. Polling stations open at 8 am and close at 8 pm. The voting process is immediately followed by vote tabulation;
November 8 – Deadline for district election commissions to summarize the results of presidential polls; final vote tallies should be submitted to CEC no later than the following day.
If no presidential candidate garners more than 50% of votes in the first round, the elections will go into run-off, which will be held no later than December 1.
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