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Presidential election in Georgia is completed as over half of electoral college cast votes

Ioseliani added that the voting would continue until 2:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. Moscow time), and then the Central Election Commission will begin calculating the votes

TBILISI, December 14. /TASS/. The presidential election in Georgia has been declared as valid since more than half of the total number of members of the electoral college, consisting of 300 people, have cast their votes, Spokesperson for the Georgian Central Election Commission Natia Ioseliani said.

"By 11:30 a.m. local time [10:30 a.m. Moscow time] 170 members of the electoral college have already cast their votes," she said. "Therefore, the presidential election can be announced as completed since as more than half of the electoral college cast their votes."

Ioseliani added that the voting would continue until 2:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. Moscow time), and then the Central Election Commission will begin calculating the votes.

Georgia is holding the presidential election on Saturday. The country’s new president will for the first time be elected by an electoral college and not through a popular vote.

Mikhail Kavelashvili, a former footballer and an ex-parliament member, is the only presidential candidate backed by the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party. The opposition has not recognized the results of the parliamentary vote held on October 26.

It has also boycotted the meetings of the legislative body and it has not put forward any candidates. Members of the parliament from the opposition do not plan to participate in the voting either.

The electoral college consists of 300 members, including 150 members of the Georgian Parliament, 21 and 20 representatives of the Supreme Councils of Adjara and Abkhazia, respectively, as well as deputies from local authorities. The voting will be held by the Central Electoral Commission of Georgia in the Parliament building. The presidential election in the country has no longer been direct since constitutional changes were enforced in 2018.

The inauguration ceremony for the new president of Georgia who will be elected for a five-year period, is set for December 29.

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