Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The Central Election Commission of Georgia has officially registered six candidates for participation in the presidential elections.

The presidential election in Georgia will be held on October 27.

The Commission reported that Labour Party leader Shalva Natelashvili, leader of the For a Fair Georgia Party Sergo Javakhidze, Giorgi Margvelashvili from Georgian Dream-United Georgia were registered as candidates on Sept.11. Also, Nestan Kirtadze, Giorgi Liluashvili and Mikheil Saluashvili --candidates nominated by initiative groups --were registered.

Around 54 applications were officially submitted for participation in the election. Political parties nominated 12 candidates, the other candidates are proposed by initiative groups.
The deadline for registration of the presidential candidates is September 17. All the candidates should present 26,350 signatures of their supporters until that time.

The electoral law allows presidential candidates to withdraw their candidacy no later than October 17.

According to the CEC, there are 3.5 million voters in Georgia, a South Caucasus republic with a population of about 4.7 million.

According to experts, the main rivalry at the polls will be between Giorgi Margvelashvili, Nino Burjanadze and Davit Bakradze.

This will be the 6th presidential election after the republic'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.