The President fulfilled his civic duty in the morning today. Mikheil Saakashvili arrived at the 19^th district of Mtatsminda with the First Lady, Sandra Elizabeth Roelofs and his youngest son. After voting, the Head of State made a statement for Georgian and international media, and noted that today Georgia faces a decisive election. He expressed hope that the multiethnic Georgian society, which is distinguished by high civil understanding, will actively participate in these elections.

“I think today is truly a historic day for Georgia because the fate of our statehood is being decided. Today it is going to be decided that Georgia will keep moving forward and it never returns to the past, so that future generations are brought up in a better country…our people were making right choices in every moment of our history and, of course, this is how important this moment is for our people, our multiethnic society, and our nation. Like never before, I am sure in intelligence, vision, and courage of our people. This is the choice which will affect not only the next four years, but the following decades. This is why I am sure that there will be intensive activity today, expression of a high level civil understanding and the Georgian nation will definitely win; and I am not talking about the victory of parties. The Georgian nation will definitely win as it has happened in every decisive moment of our history.”- stated Mikheil Saakashvili.

There are a total of 3,613,851 persons in the Georgian electorate based on the data of the Central Election Commission.  14 political parties and two blocs are participating in the election. There are also 45 special districts created abroad.

The population of the country will elect the legislature for 4 years. The Parliament will have 150 deputies out of which 77 will be elected proportionally and 73 by a majoritarian rule.

Today elections are held in the Adjara Autonomous Republic where the population will elect 21 deputies, including 15 proportional and 6 majoritarian. Adjara has a total of 304,930 voters. 9 political parties and two blocs are participating in the elections.

61 international and 50 local nongovernmental organizations are observing elections today.  The number of accredited local observers is over 61 thousand and international observers over 33 thousand.