Levan Ioseliani: It is important for us that every person has the opportunity to participate in the elections - this is the main issue of our supervision

It is important for us that all people have the opportunity to participate in elections. This is the main issue of our supervision. Beyond that, all other related issues - in which country it should be opened or how many districts should be opened, are addressed to other agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Election Commission, - said the Public Defender of Georgia, Levan Ioseliani.

According to him, a person in any country should have the opportunity to go to a specific place and vote."When our apparatus saw a specific violation and we also saw that our citizens (here we are talking about IDPs) who were left without the right to vote, we requested the Central Election Commission to issue a special resolution allowing these people to participate in the elections. After registration, they would be included in the general election list. I would like to positively note that the Central Election Commission, together with the opposition parties there, made a unanimous decision, and our citizens who are abroad, despite the fact that they did not have an actual address in Tbilisi or Georgia, their legal address is in the occupied territory. They were given the opportunity to participate in the elections. This is very important, along with this, also those people whose address could not be determined, we are talking about about 800 people who were without the right to vote before this change, although with our involvement, recommendation and the decision of the Central Election Commission, this issue is thus solved. It is important for us that every person has the opportunity to participate in the elections. This is the main issue of our supervision. Beyond that, all other issues related to which country should be opened or how many precincts should be opened are referred to other agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Election Commission. I will say once again that our recommendation concerns, in particular, the fact that all people have the opportunity to vote, but in which country what is the regulation of the election process, it depends on that country.

If a person in any country should have the opportunity to go to a specific place and vote, this is what we recommend, there will be one or several similar places, these are issues that are regulated by the legislation of Georgia on the one hand and on the other hand by the laws of that country with the requirements, where those people are, because they also have their own legislation, which does not so easily allow election processes to take place in their territory for citizens of other countries", said the Public Defender.