Unprecedented Number of Presidential Candidates

Nino Gvaridzishvili, Kakheti

Today, voters will have to make choice between 23 candidates. So many presidential candidates have never been registered for the presidential elections in Georgia before. 

Society has different opinions about the high number of presidential candidates. Part of them does not see any problems in it and believes that high level of involvement is observed in democratic countries; second part of society believes it is comic that there are 23 candidates in the country with the population of 4 million. 

Why were so many presidential candidates registered in the country? What is their motivation and is not it necessary to make registration procedures stricter? We talked with Giorgi Mumladze, researcher of the Constitutional Research Center and lecturer at the Ilia State University about the issue. He does not see anything problematic in the plurality of candidates.

“Election is one of the significant indicators of the democratic development. So, it is important that population is actively involved in the process and has maximum freedom in the elections. I think, we do not need to make the legal regulations stricter because it is important to give equal chance to everybody to be registered as a candidate; otherwise we will receive circulation and shifting movement of only famous politicians,” Mumladze said. 

We asked expert of election issues Nina Khatiskatsi to comment on the issue. She does not see any problem in the plurality of candidates but she is worried that CEC has to spend many human and other resources for this reason. “Similar approach to the plurality of presidential candidates is more problematic because more competitive election environment is needed for the normal functioning of democratic country. I think, it is more important that CEC has to spend huge human and material resources when there are so many presidential candidates registered for the elections,” Nina Khatiskatsi said.