More than 1.8 mln voters cast ballots in municipal elections
A total of 3, 497, 345 individuals were eligible to elect 2,068 members of 64 city assemblies and 64 mayors in October 2 municipal elections in Georgia. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
Tweet 
Share
A total of 1,815,776 people (51.92 per cent of eligible voters) have cast ballots in the municipal elections as of 8 p.m. today.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairperson Giorgi Kalandarishvili thanked everyone for their participation in the elections. He said after the polling stations closed at 8 p.m. throughout the country ‘the important election procedure’ of vote counting is now underway.
Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
Noting that the elections were held mainly in 'peaceful environment', the CEC spokesperson Natia Ioseliani said 366 complaints have been filed at the election commissions concerning the procedural violations.
Georgia’s Central Election Commission is expected to provide official preliminary results within 7-8 hours after the end of vote, due to time required for counting three types of ballot papers (single-mandate, proportional and mayoral) in 3,664 precincts across the country.
Municipal elections are held in Georgia per a mixed electoral system. Voters have to fill three ballot papers: the first ballot paper is for mayoral candidates (which are elected per a 50+1 system. The winner is the candidate who will receive at least 51 per cent of votes, otherwise a second round of elections will be held).
Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
The second ballot paper is for majoritarian candidates in city assemblies (voters should circle a desired majoritarian candidate on the list). The third ballot paper is for parties - the more votes a party receives in the elections, more members it will have in city assemblies.
The final results of October 2 municipal elections will be available at results.cec.gov.ge. However, the three exit polls commissioned by Imedi TV, Mtavari Arkhi and Formula TV as of 6 p.m. say that the ruling Georgian Dream party received between 47-38% in municipal proportional elections.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and the united opposition are celebrating victory in the local municipal elections based on exit polls commissioned by various TV channels and prior to the official announcement of the results. The GD has addressed their supporters from the stage and congratulated them on the party’s victory.
Imedi TV, opposition-minded Formula and Mtavari TV channels have released their commissioned exit poll results in today’s municipal elections as of 6 p.m. The exit poll results are as follows: Gorbi exit polls commissioned by Imedi TV for Tbilisi mayoral race: Kakha Kaladze - ruling Georgian Dream party - 51.3%. Nika Melia - United opposition - 34.6%.
Georgia is holding municipal elections today. Voters will elect 2,068 members of 64 city assemblies and 64 mayors.They will receive three different ballot papers at the polling station.43 political parties have been registered for the October 2 elections.A total of 3,743 polling stations have been established in 73 election constituencies (including nine polling stations in prisons and 70 special polling stations for the individuals who are in self-isolation because of coronavirus).
Opposition political party For Georgia founded by the former PM Giorgi Gakharia has declared that it does not trust the results of exit polls commissioned by various TV channels which granted the third place to the party. For Georgia’s representative Ana Buchukuri has stated that the ‘results are not credible enough,’ noting that such results may be due to ‘political bias’ and intimidation of voters.
The vote count will be taped in 3,200 polling stations during the October 2 municipal elections in Georgia for the first time as part of an additional transparency measure, spokesperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia Natia Ioseliani has stated. "Video recordings will be promptly uploaded to the internet on the Google Drive platform. Video cameras will also be used to record the recounting procedure as well. As a result of electoral reform it will be implemented for the first time this year,” said Ioseliani.
On the day political tension reached its peak as citizens headed to polling stations in Georgia's municipal elections, some social media users lightened up their day by finding humour in developments over the previous 24 hours.
Municipal elections unlike other elections have majoritarian, proportional and mayoral ballots counting of which requires more time, moreover, overall 43 political parties are registered for this year’s elections which is twice as many as in previous years, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has explained. Referring to the counting, spokesperson of the CEC Natia Ioseliani stated that ‘everything is being done in full compliance with the law.’
A second round of mayoral elections could be needed in five large cities including Tbilisi where the ruling Georgian Dream party candidate Kakha Kaladze is leading. As of 10 a.m. October 3, the results of 360 precincts out of a total of 769 in Tbilisi are: Kakha Kaladze/Georgian Dream – 45.28% and Nika Melia/United National Movement – 34.27%.
A second round of municipal elections in Georgia will be held on October 30 as some candidates did not receive enough votes to overcome the mandatory threshold, including in Tbilisi, based on the preliminary results of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze says that he expected victory in the first round of yesterday’s municipal elections, but says he is sure he will be victorious in the second round.
“Georgia’s local elections were competitive and technically well administered, but marred by widespread allegations of electoral violations, vote-buying, and an unlevel playing field, as well as intimidation and pressure”, the international observers have stated today.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has stated that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has won the local municipal elections ‘convincingly’ nationwide while the largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party ‘lost the battle with Georgian people and the GD for the eighth time.’ "The elections were held in a successful, peaceful, free and fair environment and were unanimously positively assessed by international observers,” Garibashvili said.