In Georgia the parliament has just passed a constitutional amendment that will allow local elections to be held before 1 June this year. It escapes me why a constitutional amendment was needed, but apparently it was. That said, there does not seem to be a great deal about local government in the constitution up to this point. (See here for the 2006 amended version).

It now seems certain that local elections will be held on 30 May. The main election at this time will for the mayor of Tbilisi. Previously, the President of the Republic appointed the mayor. The direct election of the mayor Of Tbilisi has been a fractious political issue over the last while. The legal situation now is that the candidate who wins a plurality of votes so long as not less than 30 per cent of the electorate has voted will be deemed elected. The opposition to President Mikheil Saakashvili has complained that this process virtually guarantees the election of a pro-presidential mayor, i.e., the president’s party is sufficiently strong and the opposition sufficiently disunited that a relatively low threshold of this sort will favour the president’s candidate.