As it became clear yesterday that just 13 candidates remain in the race to become the next president of Georgia at the snap elections on January 5, the Georgian Public Broadcaster announced it was planning twice-weekly televised presidential debates as the contest hots up.

The initial field of 22 presidential hopefuls was soon whittled down to 16, but only 13 of these finally garnered enough support to present the required 50 000-signature nominating petitions to the Central Elections Committee (CEC) by the 6.00pm deadline on December 6.

Mikheil Saakashvili’s campaign team were first to submit the required documents, handing over 140 000 signatures collected in support of the former president’s re-election bid on December 4.

However, in a bizarre display of one-upmanship Saakashvili’s team later submitted an additional petition to top business tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili’s pledged support, when news broke that he had garnered 202 000 signatures.

Levan Gachechiladze, the presidential runner of the nine-party opposition coalition, amassed 63,000 signatures.

Irina Sarishvili, of Imedi party, told journalists collecting signatures from the provinces was difficult due to fears of political intimidation amongst locals.

“It was harder to drum up support in the regions than in Tbilisi. People are frightened. They’re ready to vote for you secretly, but wary of openly supporting opposition candidates,” she said.

Other hopefuls that submitted nominating petitions included Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights party, and Gia Maisashvili of the Future party.

The CEC now has two days to verify the petitions. In the event of any discrepancies, the candidates will be given a further two days in which to put things right before the CEC announces the final list of candidates on December 11, CEC chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili said.

Meanwhile the OSCE confirmed yesterday it would be sending 300 observers to Georgia to monitor the election on top of its team of long-term observers based in Tbilisi, who will also monitor the media during the election campaign.

Dieter Boden, head of the observation mission of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), met the CEC chairman yesterday and was briefed on recent developments in the election process.