Parliamentary elections in Georgia scheduled for October 1

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has appointed the parliamentary elections on October 1 this year. This was announced by Manana Mandjgaladze, Press Speaker of the Georgian President.

"The President of Georgia hopes that the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country will be exemplary," stated Manana Mandjgaladze. She has emphasized that Mikhail Saakashvili "has repeatedly stressed the willingness of the government to ensure that the parliamentary elections in the autumn will be free and fair, and the pre-election campaign will be open and transparent."

She has also emphasized the initiative of the Georgian President to invite to the country long-term observers from abroad and to establish the Commission to refine the lists of voters, the recent adoption of the law that requires cable TV companies to broadcast all Georgian TV channels during the election period, and the establishment of an interdepartmental commission for the elections under the Council of National Security, the IA "News-Georgia" reports.

According to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, on July 31, Mamuka Katsitadze, the head of the Commission to refine the lists of voters, held a presentation of the Commission. The Commission has re-checked the list of 3,483,142 voters, and the work was carried out in accordance with the "from door to door" principle. The lists were obtained from the Civil Register, the Ministry for Execution of Punishment, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the data were taken as effective on February 1, 2012. The information on 2,160,608 voters turned out to be accurate.

According to Mamuka Katsitadze, the Commission has determined three main directions of its work: it was necessary to remove deceased citizens from the list and to identify the persons, who left the country, and the persons, who were registered at particular addresses, but who did not live there. The methodology of the work was prepared with the help of the "International Foundation for Electoral Systems".

Today, on August 1, the list of Georgian voters shall be presented. Within a month, citizens will be able to check their names on the lists, and, in the case of discrepancies, they will be able to contact the Commission to clarify their data. The final version of the list will be presented on September 15.