President announces date of 2016 parliamentary elections
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, April 7
The President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili ,announced that the 2016 Parliamentary elections will be held on October 8.
According to the Presidential Administration, the relevant documentation was sent to Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili for his approval. There are now two decrees that state that the 2016 parliamentary elections and the elections of the High Council of Adjara Autonomous Republic will be held on October 8.
The Prime Minister of Georgia should sign the presidential decree over the upcoming parliamentary elections’ date in ten days.
According to Georgia’s legislation, after the countersignature, the decree must be published in the Legislative Herald of Georgia. Once the legal act about the appointment of the election date is published, pre-election campaigns will start.
Before the announcement of the election date, the President met with the Prime Minister of Georgia, and the representatives of executive and legislative government. According to the governmental Administration, election issues, foreign priorities and regional developments were discussed at the meeting.
"The Prime Minister and I had a fruitful meeting with representatives of the executive and legislative branches. We reviewed the situation in the region and coordinated work both inside and outside the country for the benefit of the region. No reshuffles were discussed at the meeting”, the President said.
The parliamentary opposition believes the President hurried to name the date and it would have been better to do it after consultations with other political parties. Others believe that there is a need to set up an inter-agency commission which will monitor the election process.
"The President, as one of the members of the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority, hurried and named the date. They want the elections to come as quickly as possible, but the date as such does not matter, because the Georgian Dream are already gone, " Petre Tsiskarishvili, a member of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party stated.
According to majority member Tamaz Mechiauri, naming the date of the elections is a priority of the President. However, he believes it would have been better to appoint a later date.
“Appointing the election date is the President’s priority. He had consultations with the government and they fixed the date. However, it would have been good for everyone if he chose a later date,” said Mechaiuri.
