Georgia’s presidential press secretary Manana Manjgaladze told journalists in Tbilisi on August 1 that President Mikheil Saakashvili had set the day and expressed his hope that elections will be held in an open and fair way, calling all eligible voters to take part in the poll.
The President is sure that the October elections will be another proof of maturity and vitality of Georgian democracy and that the major steps will be taken on the path of further strengthening of our statehood,” Manjgaladze said.
In ppposite to this, Civil.ge reports, MP Levan Vepkhvadze of the Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) has complained that setting of election date for October 1 would create certain inconvenience for majority of MP candidates running in Tbilisi single-mandate constituencies because they would have too little time for campaigning. He argued that many Tbilisites would be out of the city for summer holidays in August till mid-September and majoritarian MP candidates in the capital city would only have actually two weeks before the elections to carry out proper campaigning.
The Georgian Dream opposition coalition, led by tycoon-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili, is expected to be the main challenger to Saakashvili’s ruling United National Movement.