On October 21, Georgian citizens will head to polls to elect 2058 members of 64 city councils (Sakrebulo) and 64 municipal mayors.

Below are the key election dates and procedures set by the Election Code and approved by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

• Schedule of Electoral Activities - Central Election Commission

August 22 – The election date was officially set, marking the formal launch of the electoral campaign period;

August 25 – Deadline for registration of those parties or blocs, which were registered during the last parliamentary elections or have representatives in the Parliament (all other parties had to file for registration before August 2); deadline also expired for registration of initiative groups wishing to nominate candidates for Sakrebulo and mayoral offices;

August 27 – CEC released information on the number of voters and their breakdown by election districts. All stakeholders, including political parties, election observer organizations and individual voters, are given time until October 3 to verify the voters’ list and file for corrections. Starting from October 6, changes to the voters’ list can only be made through court ruling;

September 1 – Deadline for submitting the list of supporters to relevant election commissions by initiative groups which nominated Sakrebulo or mayoral candidates. On September 10, CEC completed registration of those mayoral candidates who were nominated by initiative groups. Registration of Sakrebulo candidates was completed on September 11;

September 8 – Deadline for registered parties to form or quit an election bloc;

September 11 – CEC assigned electoral numbers to political parties, election blocs and initiative groups. Those parties and election blocs, who ran in the last parliamentary elections and wanted to keep their electoral numbers, were able to file a relevant application to CEC; 

September 14 – Deadline for completing the registration procedures of parties and election blocs by CEC;

September 21 – Deadline for political parties and election blocs to submit to CEC their party lists for Sakrebulo polls, as well as the Sakrebulo candidates in single-member districts;

October 9 – Deadline for political parties, election blocs and initiative groups to withdraw Sakrebulo and mayoral candidates; deadline also expires for candidates to withdraw from the race;

October 11 – Deadline for local observer organizations to apply to CEC for registration;

October 14 – Deadline for international observer organizations to apply to CEC for registration;

October 16 – Deadline for CEC to release final data on total number of voters, following voters’ list corrections.

October 21 – Election Day. Polling stations will be opened at 8 am and closed at 8 pm. The voting process will be immediately followed by vote tabulation. 

November 1 – Deadline for district election commissions to summarize the results of Sakrebulo and mayoral polls (excluding the results in Tbilisi); final vote tallies should be submitted to CEC no later than the following day. The latter will summarize the results of Sakrebulo and mayoral polls in Tbilisi no later than November 9.

If mayoral candidates fail to garner more than 50% of votes in the first round, the elections will go into run-off, which will be held before November 16, no later than the 25th day after the first round of elections.