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.
Georgia is electing its fifth president on Sunday and for the first time in the Georgian history a female candidate has a real chance to take the post.
Few days before the elections presidential candidates Salome Zurabishvili, David Bakradze and Grigol Vashadze have emphasised the priorities and goals they would like to achieve in case of victory.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has provided a survey which says that their supported independent presidential candidate Salome Zourabichvili will win the October 28 presidential elections in the first round.
David Bakradze, the current leader of the parliamentary minority and former speaker of the Georgian parliament from 2008-2012, has been named as the presidential candidate of the European Georgia party today.
Voter turnout for the presidential elections in Georgia was at 15.95% by 12 p.m., the Central Election Commission (CEC) reports.
The ruling Georgian Dream-supported independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili has cast her vote at polling station No. 3 in Krtsanisi election district, in central Tbilisi, and said that had voted for a peaceful, united and democratic Georgia.
Organisations observing the presidential elections have presented a list of violations that have been reported so far at polling stations.
Police have detained a representative of the Georgian Dream ruling party and a member of the united opposition [supporting presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze] in the village of Imiri of Marneuli region in eastern Georgia as the individuals were verbally and physically fighting with one another at the polling station.
Agenda.ge has put together vital election information in the form of an interactive, online map of Georgia so you can easier understand and learn about the 2018 presidential elections.
In Georgia 215,329 voters throughout the country have cast their vote in the presidential elections by 10 a.m. this morning, announces the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Georgian citizens registered abroad will be able to cast ballot in 40 countries during Georgia’s parliamentary elections on October 31.Citizens will be able to register with their embassies abroad by October 11.