Election Day: Polling stations open for 3.5 million voters in Georgia
The Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze has already cast his ballot. Photo: Government of Georgia.
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Georgians are heading to the polls today to decide who will be the country’s fifth president.
The president will be elected to a six-year term: this is also the last time the president will be elected by direct vote.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. across the country in 73 precincts. There are 3,703 polling stations and 11 special stations opened throughout Georgia. 55 polling stations are open abroad.
The total number of voters on the voters’ list is 3,518,877. There are 14,795 voters registered abroad.
The Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze has already cast his ballot.
Today, together with our citizens, we will hold free, transparent and democratic elections. I voted for Georgia's development, Georgian traditions and our European choice; the path of development which was chosen by the first republic a hundred years ago”, Bakhtadze said.
After casting his ballot in the presidential elections, current president Giorgi Margvelashvili said that he had voted for a presidential candidate who will be the president of all people.
I voted for the presidential candidate who will be the president of all; who will not be afraid to be the president of all, the president of all citizens of Georgia and who will be a commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, which has an amazing centuries-old history and inspiring heroism of past years. This commander-in-chief will be proud of being the head of these heroic people, our armed forces”, Margvelashvili.
The Catholics Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II has also cast his vote today, blessed the whole country and hoped everything would be fine “and that Georgia would be happy”.
25 candidates are running in 2018 presidential elections in Georgia.
A presidential candidate needs 50%+1 votes for winning. If a candidate does not collect the needed number of votes, a second round of elections will be held. The two candidates who showed the best results in the first round will participate in the second round of the elections.
The Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) will appoint the date of the second round of elections if one needs to be held. The candidate who receives more votes in the second round will become president of Georgia.