The Georgian authorities have “committed to the direct election of all mayors in few months time,” President Saakashvili said in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

So far the senior officials were speaking about direct mayoral elections for only capital city, Tbilisi, and it was remaining not fully clear what the ruling party’s position was about the direct elections of mayors in other major towns of the country.

Saakashvili raised the issue in his speech when speaking about the Georgian authorities continued commitments to deepen democratic reforms.

He also said that the authorities had also committed to begin the development of new electoral rules based on consensus and agreement of different political parties in order to ensure the greatest possible legitimacy of the next local, parliamentary and presidential.”

In July, President Saakashvili offered to hold the local elections on May 30, 2010, instead of originally planned late next year.