All ID cards issued before 2011 will lose validity – ruling party head

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday claimed all identification cards issued before 2011, prior to the entry of digital IDs, would lose their validity and the voters would have to replace them with digital ID cards ahead of the next year’s Parliamentary elections. 

 

In his comments after the meeting between the ruling party and the opposition on the heels of the approval of a new bill by the legislative body with its first reading earlier this months, which allows citizens to vote with non-digital ID cards, the lawmaker claimed after the agreement the number of such, valid ID cards in the country would be deceased to 500-1,000. 

 

He further noted the bill proposed by European Socialists could be approved with all readings, but due to the small number of such ID cards the opposition would have “no reasons” to be afraid of rigging elections. 

 

The domestic opposition groups claimed the GD stood behind the specific bill, which they said aimed at rigging the forthcoming elections. 

 

The current legislation bans voting with non-digital ID cards.