2012-07-21 On July 11, 2012, the Minister of Foreign Affairs signed the N158 Decree on amendments to Decree N241, which was signed on 10 October, 2011, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Article 5 of the N158 Decree provides that "citizens of Georgia residing abroad will not be able to obtain consular registration if they fail to present documentation concerning their dwelling place". Citizens of Georgian residing abroad need consular registration in order to participate in parliamentary and presidential elections. In order to obtain dwelling place documentation, the citizen should be legally residing in the country. However, in some cases, these countries don't provide such documentation. Accordingly, these amendments may restrict the right to vote for more than 1,500,000 citizens living abroad.