One would think that Georgia’s government would be wary of banning presidential candidates on the basis of ambiguous citizenship laws. Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili was unceremoniously stripped of his Georgian citizenship when he announced his entry into politics in 2011. The decision was blatantly political and caused an uproar. Parliament responded by hurriedly (and unusually) introducing new legislation allowing citizens of EU states (which Ivanishvili was) to run for office. His coalition won the election, President Saakashvili gave him back his citizenship, and Ivanishvili is running the show.
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”1622″,”attributes”:{“alt”:”Salome Zourabichvili”,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”342″,”id”:”Salome Zourabichvili”,”style”:”width: 125px; height: 125px; float: left; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px;”,”title”:”Salome Zourabichvili”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”342″}}]]But wait – now Georgia’s former foreign minister, Salome Zourabichvili (a French-Georgian binational), wants to run for president in next month’s election. Georgian legislation forbids dual citizens from serving as president. But it says nothing that forbids dual citizens from running for president. Zourabichvili is aware of this and says that, if elected, she’ll surrender her French citizenship. But the Central Election Commission has refused to accept her candidacy, citing the provision banning dual citizens from serving as president. It’s ruled that way against two other would-be contenders too. Zourabichvili is appealing the decision to the courts.
And so she should. The Georgian election monitoring organization ISFED has already found in favor of Zourabichvili. And while ISFED suggested the law is ambiguous, it really seems clear as day. Zourabichvili and other candidates cannot possibly be banned from running on the basis of their dual citizenship. They just have to surrender that citizenship if they win.
If the CEC’s decision is upheld, the analogies to the last government’s retreat from democracy will be unavoidable.
