On 27 October 2013 Georgia's citizens elected their
fourth president since the country became independent
from the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite the fact that the
presidential position is now largely ceremonial, the election
held a special significance since it marked the coming
into effects of the 2010 constitutional amendments which
shifted institutional power from the presidency to the of-
fice of the prime minister. The new election, the sixth in the
country's post-independence history, led also to the automatic
resignation of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, and
the formation of a new government, led by Irakli
Garibashvili.
Although the electoral system allows for two rounds to
ensure that the winner is elected by a majority of votes,
only one was needed, as the Georgian Dream's (GD) presidential
candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili secured a
resounding victory in the first round with 62.1% of the
votes, with the opposition United National Movement
(UNM) candidate Davit Bakradze trailing some 40 points
behind (21.7%). Margvelashvili was inaugurated on 17
November, following Mikheil Saakashvili (2004e2013),
Eduard Shevardnadze (1995e2003), and Zviad Gamsakhurdia
(1991e19921
) as the president of the Republic of
Georgia.