Georgia holds parliamentary elections that could be most tense in recent years

Georgia Online and Echo of the Caucasus reported.

Polling stations opened in Georgia at 8:00 a.m. Tbilisi time and will close at 8:00 p.m. The elections will be considered valid with any turnout. 

These are the 11th parliamentary elections in Georgia and the 35th since the restoration of independence. The Georgian Dream party, which has been ruling the country for 12 years, plans to win the parliamentary elections for the fourth time. Its main competitors are four opposition groups that have signed a joint European Charter of Action after the elections: Coalition for Change, Unity, Strong Georgia, and Gakharia - For Georgia.

A total of 18 parties will be on the ballot.

As Georgia is a parliamentary republic, the party that wins the majority will have the right to form the government and determine the country's domestic and foreign policy for the next four years.

The elections will result in 150 deputies being elected. The parties that receive at least 5% of the vote will be admitted to parliament.  

Read also Elections in Georgia: significance, expectations and modelling

President Salome Zourabichvili supported the opposition, accusing the ruling party of changing its foreign policy course. She has already voted in the parliamentary elections.

“I want to congratulate the whole of Georgia on today. This is a happy day. I did not vote for someone, this time I voted for something. I voted for a new Georgia, for the Georgia for which I came to this country 22 years ago. I voted for the Georgia that all my parents prayed for, for which the whole of Georgia is praying. Tonight we will all be winners. No one will be upset because Georgia will win,” she told reporters.

How the elections will be held

The first preliminary results of the elections will be announced about two hours after the polls close, by 10:00 p.m. Tbilisi time. First, the Central Election Commission will announce the electronic vote count, then the ballots will be recounted manually and the “manual” result will be considered the real result.

This year there are several innovations, in particular, for the first time the Georgian parliament will be elected not by a mixed but only by a proportional system (party lists).

For the first time, electronic means will be used on a large scale - voter verification and vote counting machines. This will apply to the majority of polling stations, with 90% of voters able to vote in the “new way.” The old way of voting will be used at polling stations abroad and at polling stations with no more than 300 voters, mainly in villages.

For the first time, the number of the chosen party will have to be filled in completely, not circled as before. This is important for reading the results by the vote-counting machine. At polling stations without an electronic system, party numbers will still need to be circled.

For the first time, the elections will be held on Saturday instead of the traditional Sunday. On the Friday before the election, a day off was declared in Georgia at the request of the Central Election Commission.

An increased turnout is expected - according to forecasts, the voter turnout will exceed 60%.

The media report a rush at railway and bus stations as citizens who study or work in the capital leave Tbilisi to visit their permanent registration places.

On Election Day, 3111 polling stations will be open, including those abroad.

Tbilisi has the largest number of voters and polling stations: 1,031,143 voters and 584 polling stations. This is followed by Batumi (154,357 voters and 90 polling stations) and Kutaisi (152,506 and 72). The Adyghe district has the least number of voters - only 15,418 voters and 16 polling stations.

As an exception, 13 polling stations will be opened in Georgia: 12 in prisons and one in the Mental Health Center.

No elections to the Georgian parliament are being held in the occupied territories of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. Moreover, all crossing points in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali have been closed and the local Georgian population will not be able to cross to the territory controlled by the central government to vote.

The voting will be monitored by 64 international and 102 local organizations. Party observers will also monitor the election. 

Two days before the parliamentary elections, the Georgian government approved a resolution that adds the Central Election Commission, courts, government administrations, the Patriarchate, and other public and private institutions to the list of strategic sites. Blocking such facilities could result in imprisonment.