Davit Bakradze, the speaker of outgoing parliament, will be the number one in ruling United National Movement’s (UNM) party list of MP candidates, UNM's spokesperson MP Chiora Taktakishvili said on August 20.

The ruling party, as well as other parties, has yet to unveil full list of MP candidates, who will be contesting for parliamentary seats in the October 1 elections under the proportional, party-list system.

Deadline for submitting party-lists to Central Election Commission expires on September 1.

Bakradze led the ruling party’s list of MP candidates in 2008 parliamentary elections after which he was elected as the Chairman of Parliament, which under the current constitution is the second highest ranking post in Georgia after the President.

In 2008 Bakradze was picked up as the ruling party’s top candidate in the list after then parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze unexpectedly withdrew from the race and refused to lead the ruling party’s list of candidates.

77 seats in 150-member Parliament will be allocated under the proportional, party-list system among those parties and election blocs, which will clear 5% threshold, and remaining 73 seats will go to majoritarian MPs elected in single-mandate constituencies.