Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party is going to ban citizens living abroad from participating in elections from abroad. This was announced by Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili at a special briefing, Radio Liberty’s Ekho Kavkaza project reports.
According to the current electoral code of Georgia, non-residents cannot vote in municipal elections, but have the right to participate in parliamentary elections, for which polling stations are opened abroad.
According to the planned changes, citizens will be able to vote in Georgian parliamentary elections only on the territory of Georgia, similar to municipal elections. Papuashvili claimed that this innovation does not limit electoral rights, but only establishes the “place and boundaries” of voting.
“First of all, it should be emphasised that nothing changes in the electoral rights of citizens who are in another country. The change concerns the procedure and means that, as in local elections, it will be possible to vote in parliamentary elections only within the state territory of Georgia… as before, every citizen of Georgia will have the full right and opportunity to participate in elections. The only condition is to come home once in four years and vote on the territory of Georgia” – he stated.
The Chairman of the Parliament emphasised that the infrastructure for voting outside Georgia will no longer be created. He believes that such a restriction allegedly increases the sustainability of elections and reduces the influence of “external players.”
“This model is fully in line with international standards and operates in countries such as Ireland, Malta, Israel, Armenia… there are special risks of impact on non-residents influenced by foreign jurisdiction and political environment where the state cannot prevent interference. In addition, there are high risks of information manipulation with regard to non-residents,” Papuashvili said.
According to him, the parliamentary elections of 2024 allegedly “clearly showed how open and crude information and political pressure from outside can be on voters.”
The speaker of the Georgian parliament also said that other changes will be made to the current Electoral Code, but he did not specify which ones.
In 2024 Georgian Dream won the parliamentary elections, which the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said were marred by irregularities, particularly cases of vote buying, physical violence and intimidation. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in particular, called on Tbilisi to hold new elections.