Presidential candidate Salome Zourabichvili (1st L) casts her ballot at a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia, Nov 28, 2018. Georgia kicked off its presidential election runoff on Wednesday to elect a new head of state for the next six years. Voters will have to choose between the independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili supported by the ruling party Georgian Dream and the candidate of the United National Movement Grigol Vashadze. (Xinhua/Tamuna Kulumbegashvili)
TBILISI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Georgia kicked off its presidential election runoff on Wednesday to elect a new head of state for the next six years.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia, during the second round of the presidential elections, voters will have to choose between the independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili supported by the ruling party Georgian Dream and the candidate of the United National Movement Grigol Vashadze.
In total, 3,703 polling stations were opened for the elections, including 55 ones abroad, said the CEC in a statement, adding that the total number of voters amounts to 3,528,658.
The polling process from 8 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) to 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) will be monitored by more than 48,500 local observers and 1,300 international representatives, said the CEC.
The final result of the voting will be officially announced on the following day.
According to the election code of the country, the candidate who secures over 50 percent of the votes in the runoff will win the election.
Georgia kicked off its fifth presidential elections on Oct. 28. As many as 19 candidates nominated by political parties and six independent candidates ran for the presidency in the elections.
However, because no candidate won 50 percent of the votes, the CEC declared a runoff between the top two candidates with the highest support in the first round of the elections to determine the final winner.
