“Georgian Dream” is effectively depriving Georgian citizens living abroad of their voting rights.
Today, on November 17, the Speaker of the Parliament of “Georgian Dream” stated that amendments will be introduced to the Electoral Code, after which emigrants will be allowed to vote only in Georgia – polling stations abroad will no longer be opened.
Why did “Georgian Dream” need to introduce this change now, and what is it preparing for?
Batumelebi spoke to political scientist Korneli Kakachia on this issue.
Shalva Papuashvili said today that anyone who wants to participate in political life should come to Georgia once every four years and vote here. We know that the majority of emigrants live abroad illegally. How realistic is it, for example, that a migrant who crossed the Mexican border would come to Georgia to vote? Why did they need to introduce this type of regulation for emigrants?
We must start by saying that this is an absolute manifestation of disrespect toward our emigrants. These people are not only our citizens, whom the state once failed to help and who were forced against their will to leave the country in search of a livelihood. Beyond that, they make a serious contribution to Georgia’s economic growth. If it were not for them, the Georgian economy would, in fact, collapse.
These people sustain and feed the Georgian state they support their relatives, don’t they? First and foremost, introducing this regulation is an act of disrespect toward them.
The second reason is that, apparently, “Georgian Dream” has analyzed recent election trends, especially the results from polling stations abroad, where it was clear that they lost elections in the overwhelming majority of those precincts. They probably also took into account the experience of Moldova, where Maia Sandu’s government was effectively preserved by the votes of the diaspora.
It appears that “Georgian Dream” is planning to hold early parliamentary elections before 2028, given that the party’s leadership has a serious legitimacy problem, both domestically and internationally. They believe that taking such a step will help them retain power.
Do you think they are preparing for new elections and that, since emigrants vote for the opposition, they decided to take away their voting rights?
That is not unlikely. They are unable to control the political crisis, despite trying to do so through various repressive laws. The fact is that this approach does not work.
The country is in international isolation; no one is engaging with them, and this will continue for a long time. At the same time, they cannot fully implement their goals because they do not have a parliamentary majority. They want to have a comfortable majority in parliament in order to carry out constitutional changes. They want to tailor everything to themselves.
So this looks like a form of revenge against emigrants for not voting for “Georgian Dream.”
This is driven by fear they are, in fact, preparing for elections. If they were not planning elections, why would they need to take this step now? This means that they are preparing for elections today and want to deprive those citizens who are abroad of their vote so that there are no surprises for them.
They are trying to block every theoretical and practical possibility that could allow opposition forces or society to defeat the ruling party in future elections.
One of the grounds for not recognizing the October 2024 elections was the violation of the principle of universality. “Georgian Dream” itself says that one and a half million Georgian citizens live abroad. Does this mean they are depriving half of the country’s population of voting rights? How can elections conducted this way be universal, and why do they think anyone will recognize them?
Their goal is not to protect the principle of universal suffrage, democracy, or equality. We have known this for a long time, so this should not surprise us. Their main goal now is to remain in power indefinitely, and they are doing everything necessary to achieve that.
When you force an undocumented citizen living abroad to return in order to vote, does that mean you are effectively depriving them of their vote?
Yes, they have effectively been deprived of their electoral rights, because they are not being allowed to participate in the building of the country.
Do emigrants have the right to sue “Georgian Dream” over this decision?
Of course, they can take the case to the Constitutional Court, but what result that would yield is a separate issue, given the state of judicial independence in the country.
You say they have a legitimacy problem and that this is why they want new elections. But if political prisoners remain in jail, if opposition leaders are not released, and if emigrants are deprived of voting rights, how can such elections provide legitimacy? Who will recognize the results? Won’t the situation be even worse than what we saw last time?
They do have a legitimacy problem, but to be honest, they are more focused on gaining a majority that would give them constitutional dominance. At present, they face certain limitations, and they want absolute superiority.
Let’s say they hold these elections and secure that majority. How do they resolve the issue of legitimacy then?
They will try to eliminate real opposition and instead create artificial, pseudo-opposition. For external audiences, they will say that others are radicals who harm the country’s interests, while presenting a so-called constructive opposition one that they themselves appoint.
We can already see who is likely to play the role of this “opposition.” Meanwhile, they are waiting for some change in international geopolitics that would work in their favor.
So far, there is nothing of the sort, but the fact is that they are deceiving their supporters and using this narrative in their propaganda.
Alongside depriving emigrants of the right to vote abroad, other restrictions have also been announced. In this context, what awaits public protest?
No one can give them guarantees. They may hope to suppress protest legally, politically, and even physically but this still cannot be guaranteed, because they themselves are fueling polarization.
No legislative change can guarantee that they will get exactly the outcome they want. We remember many recent repressive laws that did not work, which is why they are introducing new restrictions. Still, they are trying, through constitutional changes and repressive legislation, to turn everything into illegality to legalize illegality, in other words.
Is there a precedent in any country where citizens living abroad were deprived of voting rights?
They themselves mentioned the examples of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Ireland.
Cuba and Nicaragua are dictatorships one-party dictatorships which perfectly aligns with the political direction of “Georgian Dream.” As for Ireland, that example is somewhat different, because Ireland is essentially a country of emigrants, with the majority of its population living abroad.
Cuba and Nicaragua, however, are dictatorships, and this alone shows the direction in which “Georgian Dream” is heading.
I am convinced that there are emigrants who do not want to sever ties with their country and who view emigration as a temporary phenomenon. They plan to return to Georgia. For this group, these restrictions will naturally be very painful. It is not excluded that they will take certain steps to ensure that their rights in this country are not ultimately taken away.
Let’s assume that a large number of emigrants decide to come to Georgia to vote. How realistic is the management of such a process, even in terms of flights?
If everyone were to come, we would not have enough airplanes. This becomes absurd.