Emigrants Returned Homeland To Enjoy Their Election Rights

Maka Malakmadze, Adjara

On September 17, Georgian emigrants approached Sarpi Custom Office at about 10:00 am. Each of them was carrying a satellite dish antenna. Relatives gathered to greet them in Sarpi from the early morning.

The surrounding area of the Sarpi Custom Office was overcrowded by high number of people. Citizens had arrived from various parts of Georgia and were waiting for their emigrant relatives. Representatives of the Georgian Dream’s Batumi office were among them too.

The gathered people met the emigrants with applause when they appeared at the Custom Office shouting: “We love you”, “We have returned…”

Zurab Maisuradze: “We returned to our homeland, to Georgia and to you; we are here to stand besides you and you to stand besides us. I brought this antenna for my brother.”

Gela Melashvili: “We got in touch with each other via social network. We symbolically purchased satellite antennas in Istanbul.”

Nata Gagua: “I bought it because I want my children to watch TV 9 and Maestro. I left job and came back.”

Maia Aduashvili: “We also brought list of the people, who were not inserted in the CEC lists.”

Two buses went through the custom checkpoint and they brought about 100 Georgian emigrants. There were list of the countries on the buses where the emigrants had returned from; those countries are: Italy, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, Spain and France.

Before leaving Sarpi, several emigrants danced Georgian dances and sang Georgian song Lale on their native land.

The emigrants continued their way to the Batumi Justice House where they sang Megrelian song Nana and Where Is Another Georgia.

Emigrants gathered in front of the Batumi Justice House to protect their right to vote. They held banners with the following slogans: “Emigrants Dream of Happy Georgia,” “Emigrants, We All Have One Dream.”

“They restricted our right to vote in two ways: First of all, October 1 is Monday – working day and second – emigrants are requested to provide notifications about places of residence to the councils that we could not provide. Our employers do not want us to make their addresses public because then they might have to pay extra taxes,” the demonstrators said.

Afterwards, the bus travelled to Guria and Imereti.

At the end of day the emigrants gathered in front of the CEC office in Tbilisi to protect their right to vote.