The CEC will not open additional polling stations abroad.
According to the decision of the Court of Appeals of Georgia, the CEC will not be opening additional polling stations abroad.
The lawsuits filed by the non-governmental organization “Fair Elections” (ISFED), Tamar Kordzaia, and former judge Besarion Alavidze against the Central Election Commission (CEC) were not upheld.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is not subject to further appeal.
What happened:
Georgian citizens who were forced to leave Abkhazia are being asked to change their place of registration, which means their actual address in the occupied territory will no longer be considered their registered address.
The Tbilisi City Court and the Central Election Commission (CEC) did not take into account the emigrants’ request to open additional polling stations abroad, which led to an appeal to the Court of Appeals.
The emigrants demanding the opening of polling stations are located in Chicago, Arnedo, Valencia, Ostuni, and Strasbourg.
Ombudsman Levan Ioseliani also commented on the issue of Georgian citizens registered in the occupied territories, who are emigrants and unable to vote in elections.
Ioseliani noted that maintaining the place of residence for internally displaced persons in the occupied territories has legal, juridical, and political significance, and therefore, such citizens are reluctant to change their permanent actual address.
Lawyer’s Comment
Lawyer Rati Tinikashvili explained that the organization exhausted all resources to ensure that additional polling stations were opened for emigrants, allowing them to vote. He believes that the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should assist Georgian citizens living abroad in this matter.
“The organization ‘Fair Elections’ (ISFED), within the scope of its mandate, has effectively used all legal mechanisms to help protect the rights of our voters living abroad, and essentially, all possible resources have been exhausted. The Central Election Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are jointly responsible for not supporting the active voting rights of our compatriots abroad.
The court ruling also clarified that the creation of polling stations abroad is the responsibility of the election administration. However, according to the court’s interpretation, the choice of specific locations for these polling stations remains at the discretion of the CEC.”
