The Parliament listens to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the issue of the participation of Georgian citizens living abroad in the elections. MPs Khatia Dekanoidze, Roman Gotsiridze, Teona Akubardia, Rostom Chkheidze, Nato Chkheidze, Bachuki Kardava and Nika Machutadze sent an interpellation question to Ilia Darchiashvili and summoned him to the legislature.

According to the opposition, the number of Georgian citizens living abroad illegally is very large, and they are mostly afraid of participating in the elections, because they think that it will lead to their deportation.

As opposition said, most emigrants are not informed that registration in elections in a foreign country is only for electoral purposes, and it cannot have any effect on the legal status of this or that person in this or that country.

The members of the Parliament are interested in the answer from Ilia Darchiashvili to the question whether the Ministry has conducted an information campaign or whether it has made a statement so far that the participation of Georgian citizens living illegally in a foreign country in the elections does not pose a threat to their legal status and whether there is a plan to conduct such a campaign.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia conducted a large-scale information campaign about the electronic consular activity management system (portalis-geoconsul.gov.ge) in 2023, which covered hundreds of thousands of citizens. The event was aimed at informing the public about the portal, as well as consular services in general, including consular accounting. Before the 2020 parliamentary elections, a special search field was launched on the website of the MFA, through which citizens had the opportunity to check the fact of their presence on the consular register. In the context of the parliamentary elections of 2024, the MFA is still planning to create a similar opportunity for citizens”, - explained Ilia Darchiashvili.