The Georgian parliament has approved changes to the election code that effectively bar citizens living abroad from voting unless they return to Georgia to cast their ballots.
Proposed in November by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies, the amendments were adopted at their third and final reading on Wednesday, passing by 79 votes to 11. Under the new rules, polling stations will no longer operate outside the country during parliamentary elections. Instead, voting will be conducted exclusively within Georgia, mirroring the system used for local elections.
Since their adoption, the amendments have sparked widespread debate both within Georgia and among the Georgian diaspora. Opponents argue that the changes are an attempt by the authorities to deprive citizens abroad of their electoral rights.
The ruling party has rejected these claims, minimizing the impact of the legislation. Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili insisted that “nothing is changing regarding the voting rights of citizens abroad.”
“As before, every Georgian citizen retains the full right and opportunity to vote; the only requirement is to return to the country once every four years to participate in elections,” Papuashvili said during a parliamentary briefing in November.
He also defended the amendments as a safeguard against “external interference” in Georgian elections, arguing that the disputed 2024 parliamentary vote, which kept Georgian Dream in power, demonstrated how intense and aggressive political and informational pressure from abroad could be.
Government officials further justified the changes by portraying them as a move toward equal treatment of emigrants. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze pointed out that Georgians living in Russia have been unable to vote from there since 2008, following the August war and the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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