President opposes citizenship legislation changes

The President of Georgia wants to keep the right to independently decide whether citizenship should be granted or not.

Giorgi Margvelashvili opposed a draft law that purposes the Prime Minister’s revision over the President’s order to grant Georgian citizenship to certain people.

The President referred to the Constitution of the country, and said it clearly defined that the President had the discreet right to grant citizenship and the decision was not a matter of approval by the Prime Minister.

"Unfortunately, changes made to the Law on Citizenship in September 2013 give a very narrow description to the President’s competence to give and retract citizenship,” said a statement issued by the Presidential Administration today. 

According to recent changes, the President can retract the citizenship from a person but his order to give one should be approved by the Prime Minister and needed his signature.

Margvelashvili also noted this rule contradicted other Georgian legislation and said the Prime Minister currently signed orders that were in the President’s jurisdiction. 

This could create problems in cases of court appeals, as Georgia’s Government and Prime Minister does not make a decision on the issue and cannot change it in the case of a court outcome.

Margvelashvili appealed to Parliament to resolve this issue in the upcoming draft-law on Citizenship that was received by Parliament in February and was currently being reviewed by MPs.

The issue of citizenship approval and withdrawal became a matter of public discussion when Georgia’s former Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, had his citizenship revoked by President Saakashvili in October 2011, two weeks after he declared he would enter politics to oppose the Government.

Ivanishvili gave up his Russian citizenship and wanted to renounce his French citizenship but French authorities said he had to become a Georgian citizen first in order to avoid ending up stateless.

Ivanishvili tried to restore his Georgian citizenship through a naturalization process but was denied on procedural grounds. He claimed Saakashvili’s decision was explained by political reasons.

The former Prime Minister regained his citizenship in January 2014.