By KUNA
Moscow : Georgia voters will head to polling stations on Saturday to cast their ballots and elect a new president, after President Mikheil Saakashvili announced in November the moving up of the elections nearly a year earlier than scheduled.
The elections will coincide with a referendum on whether or not Georgia should join NATO, as well as for allocating an early parliamentary election date in response to demands of the opposition.
Seven candidates are competing for presidency: Saakashvili, who stepped down in November to run in the election; businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili; the Labor Party’s Shalva Natelashvili; New Rights Party’s David Gamkrelidze; Future Party’s Gia Maisashvili; Irina Sarishvili of the Imedi political movement; and Levan Gachechiladze, who represents a coalition of opposition groups.
Saakashvili is seen by observers as the most likely winner in the presidential race. His call for early elections came after violent confrontations with the opposition in November, upon which a state of emergency was imposed and freedoms were restricted.
Georgian law stipulates that a candidate must win 50 percent plus one of the total number of voters, numbered at three million.