“We intend to use all means of legal and media pressure, the support of international community in order to achieve the realization of our inalienable right, the right to vote”, Teimuraz Shengelia, leader of the movement "Voice of Georgia – for Fair Elections, says. “Parliamentary elections in Georgia will take place on October 1. The commitment and interest of citizens in these elections is exceptionally high. People are waiting for positive change, a serious struggle is going to take place. According to the results of the last elections, which took place in 2008, only 11,500 people went to two polling stations. This is critically low for the Georgian Diaspora, I am only talking about citizens of Georgia with Georgian passports, which is about 400,000 people. Therefore, the aim of our movement is clear from its name, and we want to create the necessary conditions for the participation of our citizens in the parliamentary elections in Georgia”.
According to Shengelia, “today, Russia is home to about a million Georgians. It is the largest and probably the most influential Diaspora in the world. People went to Russia to work to help their families, and in fact have taken upon them the social function of the state. They dream of returning home to their families and friends, as soon as the economic and political situation in the country allows them to do so. For them, the elections are the only chance for such change. 400,000 out of a million is more than 10% of the total electorate. The total number of voters in Georgia, according to the latest data, is 3.72 million. But now it turns out that this huge army of people does not have an opportunity to vote or participate in these elections. The first serious, and you may even say, absurd obstacles appeared in the summer. Back then, our action team began helping Diaspora representatives to register as voters on the website of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. We provided free consulting and technical support. We were convinced we were doing something useful for the people and the state. But, unfortunately, we received something quite the opposite. This has not only not displeased someone, but apparently even scared some people. On July 24, the Georgian Foreign Ministry actually prohibited the registration of voters. Now, to get the right to vote, every citizen must submit to the Georgian authorities a certificate of registration according to place of residence, as well as detailed data of contact people indicating their places of work and residence. Taking into consideration the difficult relations between our countries, not all the citizens of Georgia can do that. I want to emphasize that the Electoral Code of Georgia does not provide for this, and such a rule has never existed before.
Moreover, today even those citizens who can meet these requirements of the Foreign Ministry will not be able to vote. To our knowledge to date, Georgia is not planning to open any polling stations in Russia. This imperils the legitimacy of the elections as a whole. What could be the reason for this? I cannot say for sure, but the formal reason may be the lack of diplomatic relations between Georgia and Russia.”.
Over the last 20 years, polling stations have been opened only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. “This is too little, given that the geographical distribution of Georgians living here is very extensive”, Shengelia believes. “In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, they live mostly in Krasnodar, Stavropol, the Rostov region, plus Voronezh, Lipetsk and Yekaterinburg. On September 3 the new rules for the registration of citizens living abroad were published, these were the rules of the Central Electoral Commission of Georgia, and they gave a one week period to register. That is, on September 10 the registration of all citizens living abroad ends. This is certainly a very short period, it is a very short period of time, and actually for so many people, not only in Russia but also in other countries, it is almost impossible to be on time. The European Georgian diaspora is also outraged that the date of the vote has been scheduled for October 1 - it is a working day, a Monday. You understand, how can they take time off from work? There are very different communication models, and it certainly decreases the turnout of people”.
In the spring of this year a temporary amendment was adopted to the Constitution of Georgia, according to which Georgian citizens of the European Union may take part in the elections and hold office. According to Shengelia, “in fact, the amendment discriminates against all other Georgians who live outside the European Union. First of all, it concerns us, the Georgians living in Russia. If you deduct 350-400 thousand out of a million, it will appear that 600-650 thousand Georgians living in Russia have been denied this right. I think that a clear distinction between Georgians living in different countries, is not only counterproductive, but is also harmful to the country”.
