(Civil Georgia) - Local self-governance elections will be held in early December, chief of the Presidents Administration Giorgi Arveladze said, but did not specify exact date.
He said on August 7 that there is no need to hurry to hold elections earlier as it will be better if new self-governance bodies will assume powers from the new fiscal year, reports Trend.
The new tentative date is different from the one announce by the President this April, when he said that local elections will be held in, or around November.
Officials from the Central Election Commission (CEC) say that no official notification about exact date of elections has been received from the Presidents Administration so far.
According to the amendments passed into the election code on June 23, 2006 by the Parliament, the law no longer sets any deadlines to the President to announce elections date. The only stipulation is that the elections should be held no earlier then 40 days after the President announces elections date.
Meanwhile, five opposition parties the New Rights, Republicans, Conservatives, Industrialists and Peoples Forum continue consultations to nominate a single Tbilisi mayoral candidate to confront the ruling National Movement partys nomination, current Mayo Gigi Ugulava, in the upcoming local self-governance elections.
Two opposition parties Labor and Freedom have announced that they are in favor of boycotting elections and stopped consultations with other five parties.
We should follow policy of a large-scale civil disobedience campaign and boycotting of elections should become part of this [campaign], Shalva Natelashvili, leader of the Labor Party, said on August 7.
However, Labor Party announced if other opposition parties refuse to boycott elections, it will run in also run, but independently without teaming up with other parties.
The Conservative Party wants to nominate for Tbilisi mayoral race its leader MP Koba Davitashvili; the Republican Party is pushing for one of its leaders Tina Khidasheli, while the Industrialists are in favor of Gogi Topadze, ex-parliamentarian and beer magnate.
The New Rights party is more in favor of nominating a non-partisan candidate, including ex-State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Giorgi Khaindrava and an influential financial and media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili.
But all these nominations are on the very initial stage of consideration and nothing is yet decided, MP Koka Guntsadze of the New Rights party said on August 7.
But the daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) quoted Khaindrava as saying that talks about his nomination are unserious. While, Patarkatsishvili has not yet made any comment regarding the speculations.
So far only two politicians have publicly announced their intention to run for Tbilisi mayoral race: current Mayor Gigi Ugulava and Salome Zourabichvili, ex-Foreign Minister and leader of opposition Georgias Way party. The latter has refused to team up with other opposition parties.
Opponents say that Gigi Ugulava has already launched his pre-election campaign. Recently he is frequently appearing on TV screens while opening various facilities, mostly playgrounds in different districts of Tbilisi.