Public TV to Hold Pre-Election Debates

The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) will start pre-election debates starting from September 30, while from December they will be replaced by thematic debates once a week, Levan Kubaneishvili, the GPB general director, told reporters on September 25.

“Pre-election debates are a legal requirement,” he said.

Elections for the Adjaran Autonomous Republic’s local legislative body, as well as MP by-elections in two single-mandate constituencies in Tbilisi, are scheduled for November 3.

Kubaneishvili was speaking before meeting members of the Anti-Crisis Council in Parliament. The president’s recent initiative on institutionalization of debates is being discussed in this format. In his annual state of the nation address, President Saakashvili said that debates should be more frequent, “maybe twice a week.”

Currently, there is no political talk-show on any national TV station. The GPB’s bi-weekly program Comment of the Day was suspended under the pretext of summer holidays, originally till September, but the program has yet to resume.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)