President Salome Zourabichvili has urged the Central Election Commission to promptly decide on the opening of a polling station in the French city of Strasbourg.
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"Thousands of emigrants' requests sent to the CEC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were rejected, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs citing that opening a branch abroad is possible only within Georgia's diplomatic missions. One reason for the refusal was security concerns. The President of Georgia has met several times with the ambassadors of Europe and the United States, including the ambassador of France, and received full support from them regarding the opening of additional polling stations.
Given that thousands of citizens live in Strasbourg, with at least 400 Georgian citizens registered in the consular register there, and, most importantly, the presence of a diplomatic representation of Georgia in Strasbourg, we call on the CEC to immediately decide to open a polling station in Strasbourg. This decision would support our emigrants in exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote," said the head of the presidential administration, Natia Sulava.
According to her, today's decision by the CEC to open an additional seven new polling stations abroad "does not address the requests of thousands of immigrants for polling stations in major cities across Europe and the United States."
As per the new decree from the CEC, one additional polling station will be opened for the parliamentary elections in New York, Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Thessaloniki, and Paris. The head of the commission's legal department, Giorgi Santuriani, explained that, based on updated data, the number of voters in these existing precincts has increased, exceeding the maximum allowed number of 3,000 voters, which justifies the opening of an additional precinct.
During today's session, CEC opposition member Giorgi Sioridze once again raised the issue of opening a polling station in Strasbourg. However, the Chairman of the CEC, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, did not address the matter and characterized Sioridze's remarks as "an attempt to overshadow this positive step of opening 7 additional polling stations."
The number of voters with the right to vote abroad has been determined to be 95,834. As of today, the CEC will open 67 polling stations in 53 cities across 42 countries.
