Georgia to Hold Presidential Elections on October 28

12:34 GMT, 1 August 2018

Previously, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has announced his decision to step down, triggering an immediate resignation of the government, due to the handling of the teenagers' murder case.

Sputnik

"The decision has been made to schedule presidential elections for October 28," Margvelashvili told a briefing.

The upcoming Presidential election will be the last time when the national vote to determine the head of the state. According to the new Georgian Constitution, approved last March, the President will be elected by a group of 150 MPs and 150 local representativesin 2024.

After a mass protests in 2003, Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigned, opening the way for the opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who became the head of the state in 2004. Under his rule, the county pursued pro-western policy, attempting to join NATO and the European structures.

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In 2008 he launched an offensive in order to regain control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which proclaimed their independence from Tbilisi in the nineties. After five days of the military clashes, Russia expelled the Georgian forces from the regions.

Saakashvili left his seat in 2013 after a nationwide protest, and Giorgi Margvelashvili became the president, however, the part of the presidential powers had been transferred to the prime minister during the previous government reforms.