TBILISI, DFWatch — Several election districts in Georgia will have to vote again on October 14 because the results of the October 1 parliamentary election were annulled due to violations, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
The commission decided on Wednesday that 9 precincts in three districts, the election will have to be annulled, and accordingly another election will be held.
All annulled results concern the majoritarian, or first-past-the-post, delegates, which make up half the delegates to the Georgian parliament. The other half are elected following a proportional system.
The cancelled districts are Sighnaghi, Gori and Khashuri, where there was a tense situation the first days after the election. People in Khashuri will have to return to the ballot-boxes and make their choice at 5 precincts.
Preliminary results from the CEC show that Malkhaz Vakhtangashvili, majoritarian candidate for the Georgian Dream coalition, has 47.15 percent of the votes in Gori district, while Giorgi Tatishvili of the National Movement has 46.43 percent.
Valeri Gelashvili, Georgian Dream candidate in Khashuri, gained 45.81 percent of votes, while Sergo Kitiashvili with a slight margin followed him with 45.2 percent of votes.
National Movement candidate Levan Bezhashvili was winning in Sighnaghi district with 48.01 percent over Gela Gelahsvili of Georgian Dream with 47.89 percent of votes.
There will be a by-election at three other districts, because the winning candidates were picked by prime minister candidate Bidzina Ivanishvili for official posts in his future government.
According to the election code of Georgia, if a member of parliament leaves an election district, a by-election is required. According to regulations in the code, the election will be conducted in one year, which means they will be held in October 2013, when a president election is also planned.
A party or election bloc, which has registered with CEC for a parliamentary election, is allowed to participate in a by-election.
Bidzina Ivanishvili named Tea Tsulukiani, who won in of one of the Tbilisi districts, as a candidate for Justice Minister; Archil Kbilashivli, majoritarian representative for Baghdati district for the post as Chief Prosecutor and Kakhi Kaladze, majoritarian for Samtredia, to be minister of regional development and infrastructure.
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