President Zourabichvili Criticizes Foreign Ministry's Handling of Polling Stations Abroad
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, April 1, 2024
The President of Georgia met with representatives from the CEC, the Public Defender, NGOs, and the EU Embassy to discuss the possibility of enabling citizens living abroad to vote.
President Zourabichvili opened the meeting with a statement in which she criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for not participating in the meetings held on this issue.
"The first very important shortcoming is that the foreign ministry does not participate in these meetings and refuses to take responsibility, which is quite incomprehensible, because this whole process is closely related to the work of the foreign ministry. Consular registration is carried out in consulates, which is a prerequisite for a request to open a station. Information about the opening of these stations should be transferred from the consulates to foreign ministry, and the foreign ministry should then pass it on to the CEC.
Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for conducting the election and registration campaign and for posting this information on the websites of the embassies. We have checked, and nothing has been done in this regard yet. We all know that registration is important now, not in four months," Zourabichvili stated.
The President also emphasized the legislative regulations regarding the opening of polling stations abroad. She pointed out that there is a law granting citizens living abroad the right to request the opening of a polling station if more than 50 people are registered in one city. However, according to Zourabichvili, despite the existence of this law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other officials have officially declared their refusal to comply with it.
Zourabichvili stated that the diaspora is ready to get involved and help the Georgian agencies to solve this issue. According to her, it is unacceptable to discriminate against citizens of Georgia living abroad.
"I urge you to give the Diaspora the right to vote and not to discriminate against them or use offensive messages. This is completely incomprehensible to me, and I believe to our entire society as well. It's not enough that we are proud of our diaspora when our football players come from European countries and give us such great pleasure and patriotic feelings. We need to ensure that those who work or live there have the opportunity that belongs to every citizen," Zourabichvili stated.
