TBILISI, August 9 – Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has assigned numbers to political parties for the upcoming 4 October municipal elections.
This year, 17 political groups registered to run. Five kept their existing numbers under rules allowing certain parties to retain them if they met deadlines and eligibility requirements. The rest drew new numbers in a public lottery streamed online.
Notably, the main opposition United National Movement (UNM) and the “Coalition for Change,” led by jailed former TV executive Nika Gvaramia, lost their numbers after failing to submit requests on time. Gvaramia downplayed the loss, calling dignity and public trust more important than “some invented local election.”
In Georgia, each registered party or electoral bloc is given a number that appears alongside its name on the ballot and is used in campaign slogans, posters, and media ads. The system is not meant to help voters who cannot read since Georgia’s literacy rate is near 100%, but rather serves as a form of political branding. Many parties become closely identified with “their” number over the years, making it an easy shorthand in a crowded political landscape. Losing a long-held number can force a rapid rebranding effort just weeks before voting.
The governing Georgian Dream party kept its familiar number 41.
