Georgian MFA addresses “misleading claims” on number of country’s citizens registered with consulates in abroad

The Georgian foreign office on Friday claimed “certain individuals” had been “manipulating” statistics from the consular portal, geoconsul.gov.ge, alleging 128,000 compatriots living abroad had registered for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

The statement said the Ministry had provided the country’s Central Election Commission with data on only 65,000 voters.

The Ministry noted the site had been active since 2015, and its “statistical figures reflect the total number of individuals”, who had used it since then, including those who registered with consulates, not the “current number of active consular registrations”.

The body also highlighted the consular registration was “not limited” to adult Georgian citizens, including minors, individuals with stateless status in Georgia, and holders of neutral travel documents, all of whom were ineligible to vote and could still register.

Furthermore, this statistic also includes individuals who initially registered through the website but later deregistered, though they remain counted as part of the overall user data”, the statement said.

It also said the Ministry had provided the CEC with the “number of active voters registered with consulates only in countries where at least 50 individuals are registered”, which it said represented the “minimum required to open a polling station”.

The Ministry expressed regret that “certain individuals” continued to “manipulate this issue and mislead our compatriots” about electoral procedures and regulations instead of providing the public with “accurate information”.