Tbilisi City Court rules against lawsuits challenging CEC’s decision on overseas polling stations

The Tbilisi City Court has rejected all three lawsuits filed against the Central Election Commission (CEC) concerning the limited number of polling stations opened abroad for Georgian citizens. This ruling comes amid growing demands from Georgian immigrants to expand access to polling stations in key cities where large numbers of expatriates reside.

Nino Dolidze, head of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, on Thursday expressed her disappointment with the court’s decision. “Unfortunately, the court’s decision was negative, although we appealed to the appeals court, and we will see what the decision will be,” she said.

Dolidze criticized the CEC, stating that despite having data on the number of Georgians living abroad, the commission failed to open additional voting districts to accommodate them. “We appealed the decision to create additional districts in the cities where Georgian citizens live. They are more than the number that is sufficient for the opening of precincts, although no precincts were opened, despite the fact that the CEC had this information that they live there,” she explained.