Georgian citizens abroad may lose voting rights under new amendments
Georgian citizens living abroad may no longer be able to participate in elections, as the ruling party prepares new amendments to the Electoral Code, News.Az reports, citing local media.
Under one proposed amendment, citizens would be allowed to vote in parliamentary elections “only within the state borders of Georgia,” effectively eliminating overseas polling stations. To vote, citizens would need to return to the country.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, a leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said that citizens abroad risk being influenced by hostile foreign powers and “making the wrong choice” when voting.
“In the case of non-resident citizens, the potential for information manipulation is high… In an era of disinformation and false reports, information can be radically misleading. This increases the risk that a physically absent citizen will make an uninformed choice,” he said.
Papuashvili added that restricting voting to Georgian territory “will strengthen the resilience of elections” and “reduce the influence of external forces.” He also noted that several countries do not open overseas polling stations, citing Armenia as an example.
Critics have suggested that Georgian Dream fears a repeat of the Moldovan scenario, in which citizens living in Western countries played a decisive role in elections.
In 2024, the opposition won Georgian parliamentary elections abroad by a wide margin, with the Coalition for Change taking first place. Its leaders are now in prison. However, the number of overseas votes was not enough to affect the overall election results. At the time, the opposition accused the authorities of doing everything possible to prevent all interested citizens abroad from voting.
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