By Trend

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, Trend reports citing Agenda.ge.

Ruling Georgian Dream party chair Irakli Kobakhidze said at a news briefing earlier today that their mayoral candidates have won elections in 44 election districts out of a total of 64, while run-offs will be held in the remaining 20, based on the preliminary results of the Central Election Commission (CEC).

It is especially sad that the second round is needed to be held in Tbilisi, but naturally none of us doubts that Kakha Kaladze will eventually win these elections”, Kobahidze said.

Noting that Kaladze will have ‘a solid majority’ in Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo) in next four years, Kobakhidze said the Georgian Dream will have at least 29 representatives in a 50-member Sakrebulo. He also ‘promises’ the citizens that all of their mayoral candidates will win the run-offs on October 30.

Ruling party chair says Georgian Dream ‘convincingly leading’
Irakli Kobakhidze says his team has achieved a ‘convincing victory’ in October 2 municipal elections, leading to ‘peace, stability and development’ of the country.

As of 1 p.m. October 3, the Georgian Dream has secured 47.25% of votes in 3,420 precincts out of a total 3,743. The opposition United National Movement comes next with 30.61% of votes countrywide.

Kobahidze has meanwhile noted that as the votes at ¾ of the precincts have been counted, most probably the final results will not change a lot.

Voters filled three ballot papers on October 2 municipal elections: 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).

The second ballot paper is for majoritarian candidates in city assemblies (The winner must receive more than 40 per cent of votes in the first round of elections to win the race, otherwise a second round of elections will be held).

The third ballot paper is for parties - they will need at least 2,5 per cent of votes to receive seats in Tbilisi City Assembly and 3 per cent in other city assemblies across the country.

According to recent changes to the electoral code, 40 members in the 50-member Tbilisi City Assembly are elected per the proportional electoral system, while the remaining 10 per the majoritarian electoral system (previously the share stood at 25/25).