Below are some of the key deadlines, dates and procedures related to the October 1 parliamentary elections as envisaged by the election code and published by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

August 5 – a deadline for applying to Central Election Commission for registration to run in the October 1 parliamentary elections for those political parties which have a member in the sitting Parliament; CEC should register an applicant party or in case of inaccuracy in an application should notify party about it within two days.

August 5 – a deadline expires for a five-member “initiative group”, which wants to nominate an independent majoritarian candidate in a single-mandate constituency, to apply for registration to respective District Election Commission (DEC); unlike previous elections in 2008, when only parties or election blocs were eligible to nominate majoritarian MP candidates, now independent candidates, nominated by an initiative group, will also be able to run in single-mandate constituencies. But independent candidates will have post GEL 5,000 as deposit, which they will only be able to retrieve if they garner at least 10% of votes. DEC should register an applicant initiative group within a day or in case of inaccuracy in an application should immediately inform about it an applicant. Registered initiative groups should then collect signatures of supporters and submit it to respective DEC no later than August 12.

August 6 – CEC publishes on its website total number of voters, who will be eligible to cast ballot in the October 1 parliamentary elections; the data should also include number of votes in each of the 73 election districts;

August 15 – a political party, which neither has a member in the sitting Parliament nor is “a qualified party” (those which have cleared, separately or together with others in an electoral bloc, a 4% threshold in parliamentary elections and a 3% threshold in local self-government elections) should submit signatures of at least 25,000 supporters to CEC; those parties which do not a member in the sitting Parliament, but are “qualified parties” will have to collect signatures of 1,000 supporters.

August 19 – deadline expires for submitting application for those parties, which plan to unite in an election bloc to run jointly under party-list, proportional system.

August 21 – deadline for a registration of election blocs by CEC.

September 1 – deadline expires for the political parties and election blocs to submit to CEC their party-lists – list of candidates who will be running in elections under the proportional system.

September 6 – CEC should register party-lists or in case of inaccuracies should notify about it party or election bloc.

September 6 – DECs should register majoritarian MP candidates nominated by political parties and election blocs or notify entities in case of inaccuracies in their applications.

September 1 – CEC is setting up election precincts in foreign countries based on data provided by the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

September 10 – deadline expires for registration of those voters in precincts in foreign countries, which are not registered with the Georgian consulate in a respective country.

September 18 – starting from this date making any change in the voters list will only be possible through court’s ruling.

September 21 – deadline for local organizations to apply to CEC for registration to monitor the elections. CEC should decide whether to register applicant organization within five days.

September 24 – deadline for international observer organizations to apply to CEC for registration to monitor the elections. CEC has to take decision on application no later than September 26.

September 28 – deadline for media representatives to apply for accreditation to CEC.

October 1 – Election Day; polling stations open for voters at 8 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

October 12 – a deadline for District Election Commissions to summarize vote tallies based on results from precincts.

October 15 – second round of majoritarian MP elections will be held in those single-mandate constituencies where none of the candidate garners more than 30% of votes in the first round on October 1. On the same day repeat election should be held in case results of the October 1 vote are annulled in any of the constituency.

October 20 – a deadline for CEC to summarize final vote tally of the elections.