A voter cast ballot in parliamentary elections at a polling station on Tsereteli Avenue in Tbilisi, October 8, 2016. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili/Civil.ge

Polling stations opened across Georgia at 8am local time on October 8 for the parliamentary elections.

There are total of 3,645 polling stations in the country, which will be closed at 8pm.

• Elections Guide
• Local Monitoring Groups’ Pre-Election Assessments
• OSCE Election Observers’ Interim Report - Sept.26

“All the polling stations in Georgia opened at 8am and the voting process is ongoing in calm atmosphere,” said spokesperson of the Central Election Commission, Anna Mikeladze, on Saturday morning.

There were reports, however, about slight delay in opening of several polling stations.

55 overseas polling stations will operate at the Georgian diplomatic missions in 47 cities of 40 countries.

There are 3,513,884 voters eligible to cast ballot in the elections.
 
CEC has registered 111 Georgian organizations eligible to monitor elections.

Total of 29,931 observers from the Georgian election monitoring groups have been registered;

CEC has registered 55 international organizations eligible to monitor the elections.

Total of 1,440 international observers have been registered to monitor elections;

Among them are:
324 long-term and short-term observers deployed by the OSCE/ODIHR;
38 parliamentarians and staff from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly;
28 from the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe;
17 from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly;
13 from the European Parliament;

OSCE/ODIHR-led international observation mission will present its preliminary post-election statement at 3pm local time on October 9.

Political parties have registered total of 42,092 representatives at the various levels of the election administration.

19 political parties and 6 election blocs are running for 77 seats up for grabs in 150-member parliament under the proportional, party-list system in nationwide vote.

816 candidates are running for 73 seats in the Parliament contested in 73 single-mandate constituencies.
 
CEC is expected to start posting vote summary protocols from precincts on its website after midnight on October 9.

Two separate exit polls’ results will be announced immediately after the polling stations close at 8pm local time.

Four TV stations, Georgian Public Broadcaster, Imedi TV, Maestro TV and GDS TV – the latter is owned by son of billionaire ex-PM and founder of ruling GDDG party Bidzina Ivanishvili – commissioned exit poll to TNS Opinion with field work being carried out by Tbilisi-based pollster Gorbi.

Rustavi 2 TV commissioned exit poll to GfK with field work being carried out by Tbilisi-based pollster BCG Research.

Simultaneously with the parliamentary elections, voters in the Adjara Autonomous Republic are electing new 21-member local legislative body, Supreme Council.
 
Also on October 8, local by-elections are held in number of localities, among them elections of head (gamgebeli) of municipalities in Bolnisi of Shida Kartli region; Zugdidi and Tsalenjikha of Samegrelo region; Chiatura and Kharagauli of Imereti region, as well as mayoral election for the town of Akhaltsikhe in Samtskhe-Javakheti region.