Georgia’s Local Election Date Set for October 2

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili set today October 2 as the date of holding local self-government elections in Georgia.

The setting of the election date marks the formal launch of the pre-election period, which means that the whole set of legal obligations envisaged by the election code will now go into effect.

The country enters yet another electoral cycle as the politicos are still caught in election fever in the aftermath of hotly-contested October 2020 parliemanetary elections.

The EU-mediated April 19 deal, which led to significant amendments into electoral code, was abandoned a few days ago by the Georgian Dream party. The United National Movement, the largest opposition party, did not sign the deal in April.

With the withdrawal, the Georgian Dream is removing the obligation to call for snap parliamentary elections if it fails to garner 43% of proportional vote on October 2 local elections.

Few hours before the presidential announced the election date, the Parliament elected Giorgi kalandarishvili as a new chair of the Central Election Commission for a six-month term. Kalandarishvili failed to attact backing from the opposition lawmakers.

ISFED, a key election watchdog, said today that with the failure to gain the opposition’s endorsement the election administration will face the lack of public trust in the upcoming elections.

Follow our GVote21 tag for more updates on October 2, 2021 local elections.

Related Stories:

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)