Less than three hours after president’s spokesperson announced that Mikheil Saakashvili set October 27 as the date for presidential election, chief of president’s administration convened a press conference, apologized for a “technical mistake” and said that the election has in fact been set for October 31.

“We want to clarify that upon decision of the Georgian President, October 31 of 2013 [Thursday] has been defined as the date for the presidential election. The information, different from this one, that we released [earlier] today was caused by a technical mistake for which we want to apologize before the society,” chief of the president’s administration, Andro Barnovi, said.

“So the last day of October has been set as the election date and a relevant legal act from the president has already been sent to the Central Election Commission and has been posted on our website,” Barnovi added.

According to the constitution presidential elections should be held in October.

It’s up to the incumbent President to select an exact date. 

Late on Monday afternoon president’s spokesperson, Manana Manjgaladze, held a briefing for journalists to announce that President Saakashvili set the election date for October 27 – the last Sunday of October. A similar press release, indicating October 27 as the election date, was also posted on the president’s website shortly after the announcement.

The press release was removed from the website after the announcement made by chief of administration Andro Barnovi and the text of presidential decree indicating October 31 as the new date was posted on the president’s website.