According to the latest decision by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of the de facto Republic of Abkhazia, only 603 out of 30,247 inhabitants of Gali (Gal) region will be allowed to vote during the upcoming parliamentary elections, which constitutes 0.5% of the region’s population.

The Abkhazian CEC created only one constituency in Gali region, which is populated almost exclusively by Mingrelian-speaking ethnic Georgians. In the previous election, there were three such constituencies in the region.

Almost all ethnic Georgians holding Abkhazian passports had their Abkhazian citizenship revoked on the eve of Abkhazia’s presidential elections in August 2014, which denied them the right to vote.