“During the pre-election period of 2024, unprecedented political, legal and administrative changes were implemented, which limit political competition. Such manipulations create an unequal space for electoral subjects before the elections” – said Dan Twining, a representative of the International Republican Institute [IRI], while presenting the election monitoring results.
Margareta Cederfelt, one of the heads of the same organization, stated that Georgian Dream used state resources to strengthen its pre-election campaign.
“Very close to the election day, Georgian Dream used state resources to boost its campaign and also reduce voter turnout. And to do so, it used local government representatives. The constant intimidation and pressure on public officials was really clear. In addition, Georgian Dream controlled many local government representatives, there was an intimidation that if the local population did not vote for the ruling party, social assistance would be cut off.
“The issue of the composition of the CEC commission should be mentioned and the cancellation of the appointment of the deputy chairman by the opposition should be noted, these changes really increase the suspicions of political bias and imbalance in the election commissions. For these reasons, trust in commissions in terms of independence and impartiality is very, very low,” she noted.
