Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The Georgian parliament has approved changes in more than 20 laws related to the new provisions of the Constitution in the first reading, which will come into force after the election of a new president.

According to the changes, a number of presidential powers are transferred to different bodies of the government.

New constitutional rules also provide technical changes in some laws. To ensure compliance with the new Constitution about 160 laws should be amended. Parliament is considering them in the overdrive mode.

The 2013 presidential election in Georgia is scheduled for October. This will be the 6th presidential election after the country's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The last one, held on January 5, 2008, resulted in the election of Mikheil Saakashvili for his second and final presidential term. According to the constitution, Saakashvili cannot run for a third consecutive term.

To be registered, the candidate must collect at least 26,530 signatures (0.75 percent of the total number of voters). The deadline for submitting signatures is September 17, and the date when the recent changes to them can be made is September 22.

Georgia's Central Election Commission has already registered 50 candidates for presidency. Ruling Georgian Dream coalition's representative Giorgi Margvelashvili, former ruling United National Movement's candidate Davit Bakradze, Labour Party's candidate Shalva Natelashvili, Christian-Democratic Movement's representative Giorgi Targamadze and others have already applied for registration in the Central Election Commission.

According to the Georgian Central Election Commission, there are 3.5 million voters in Georgia.