Today, December 14, the Electoral College will indirectly elect the sixth president of Georgia for the first time, Georgia’s First Channel reports.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili for the post of president.
The election procedure is taking place in the Palace of Parliament, it began at 09:00 local time and will continue until 14:00.
According to the law, the presence of a majority of the full composition of the Electoral College – at least 151 members – is sufficient to hold elections, and the votes of at least 200 members of the College are required to elect the president.
The president elected by the Electoral College will hold office for five years.
As for the Electoral College, it has 300 members. The College includes 150 members of parliament, all members of the supreme representative body of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara – 21 deputies, 20 members of the supreme representative body of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and 109 members of the Sakrebulo.
Of the 109 members of local government bodies, the Georgian Dream was supposed to represent 54 members, and eight opposition parties – 55. Due to the fact that the opposition did not appoint members of city councils to the Electoral College, these seats were filled by the ruling party, accordingly, the Georgian Dream has 211 members in the Electoral College.
Of these, 89 deputies are from the parliament, 13 are from the Supreme Council of Adjara and 109 members are from the councils.
The indirect presidential elections in parliament are conducted by the Central Election Commission of Georgia. Today, the Central Election Commission will sum up the election results immediately after the end of the voting in parliament.
Earlier, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili confirmed that she does not intend to resign.
She called the presidential elections scheduled by the Georgian Dream for December 14 a “parody”.
Zurabishvili said that she will remain president until new elections are held in the country in compliance with democratic standards.