Georgia prepares for municipal elections
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Georgia’s governing Georgian Dream coalition has officially activated all of its 74 campaign headquarters across the country for the 2014 municipal elections.
The party’s Secretary General, Vice Prime Minister Kakha Kaladze introduced Giorgi Gegechkori as the coalition’s spokesperson today, and said the Georgian Dream would name its 12 mayoral candidates on April 26.
Gegechkori, born in 1988, was head of the Foreign Department at Georgia’s Energy Ministry. Before this he served as head of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. He has also served as personal assistant to ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The municipal elections will be held on June 15, 2014. Seventy one local self-government bodies - Sakrebulos and 2, 088 members of Sakrebulo, 12 city Mayors and 59 heads of the local municipality - Gamgebelis will be elected in the local self-government elections.
The Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) have begun implementing electoral procedures prescribed by the Georgian election legislation and adopted the schedule of electoral activities at the CEC meeting on Monday.
The document included each upcoming activity, which should be implemented by the election administration.
"The whole administration is starting to work in a special regime in order to ensure the elections without any shortcomings and give each voter the opportunity to fulfill civic duty,” CEC chairperson Tamar Zhvania said after the meeting.
She noted the election administration was "well-prepared" to organise the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, Georgian opposition party United National Movement (UNM) officially launched its 2014 local self-government election campaign on April 12.
The Government of Georgia is guaranteeing the upcoming local self-government election will be free, fair and transparent.
Georgia’s Prime Minister has faith in the upcoming local self-government elections and has issued a moratorium on legal proceedings against those involved in election campaigns to help ensure a free and fair election.
There are 62 days left before Georgian citizens are able to elect who they wish to run the capital city and local municipalities.
A candidate running in the Tbilisi Mayoral election has resigned from his Government role to begin his election campaign.
A number of international observer organisations have given their consent to observe the municipal elections in Georgia this summer, about a month after Georgian authorities invited them to oversee the election process.
There are almost 3.5 million voters who are eligible to take part in the June 15 local self-government elections.
The upcoming municipal election was the main topic discussed at a meeting between Prime Minister Irakli Garibahsvili and Political Council of the ruling Georgian Dream party today.
More than two dozen political groups have successfully registered with the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) to take part in the June 15 municipal elections.
"We are the only government who dared to change the system and choose decentralisation.” These words were spoken by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili as he delivered a speech at the conference Local Self-Governance – Best Practice 2015 today.