The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, efforts are underway to hold first-ever live TV debates in Georgia between four presidential candidates.
The International Foundation of Election Systems (IFES), with the support of USAID, is leading these efforts. So called ‘qualified candidates’ (those nominated by political parties that won at least 4% of the vote in the last parliamentary elections and at least 3% of the vote in the last local election) have already been invited to participate in an hour-long debates planned to be aired by four networks — Georgian Public Broadcaster, Imedi, Mze, and Rustavi 2 – on December 30.
Invitations were issued on 21 December to the campaign offices of Levan Gachechiladze, Davit Gamkrelidze, Mikheil Saakashvili and Shalva Natelashvili. All, except of Saakashvili, have responded favorable and offered to participate, according to IFES.
Most of the leading opposition presidential contenders, including Gachechiladze, Gamkrelidze and Natelashvili have previously voiced their readiness to participate in the debates, but only if Saakashvili would participate. Saakashvili said in a televised interview on November 25 that he was amenable to “an issue-based debate.”
IFES said that the plan was to have moderators from the four television stations who will each have 20 minutes to ask the candidates questions on pre-announced topics. Candidates will also each give a closing statement
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