Givi Mikanadze, an MP of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday rejected the recent pre-election monitoring report by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy by calling it “absurd and baseless” and accusing the organization of “promoting polarization” ahead of the October 26 parliamentary elections.
In a press briefing, Mikanadze criticized the report, presented on Wednesday, for “failing to address” what he described as an “ongoing campaign” by unspecified non-governmental organizations framing the forthcoming vote as a “choice between Europe and non-Europe”. The lawmaker argued the campaign, “aimed at polarising voters”, was ignored by the ISFED in its assessment.
“In today’s briefing, we would like to address the completely absurd and baseless assessments presented to the public yesterday by ISFED in its unofficial preelection period monitoring report. The report discusses the conditions of severe polarization in the country. This conclusion is particularly surprising, given that several nongovernmental organizations are openly conducting an informational campaign suggesting that the parliamentary elections are a choice between Europe and non-Europe. The purpose of such a false campaign is nothing if not to polarize the public. However, ISFED’s report makes no mention of this campaign by the nongovernmental organizations. ISFED expresses concern about the ruling team’s potential declaration of the National Movement as unconstitutional if they secure a constitutional majority, which, in their view, harms the electoral process.
We remind the authors of the report that political parties are banned in many democratic countries around the world. In any country, as well as in Georgia, the prohibition of parties is provided for if strict criteria are met. This is confirmed by Article 23, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of Georgia, which states that “the establishment and activity of a political party that aims to overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional order of Georgia, infringe on the independence or violate the territorial integrity of the country, or that propagates war or violence or incites national, ethnic, provincial, religious or social strife, shall be inadmissible.”
“Furthermore, member states of the Council of Europe are obligated to prohibit political parties if they engage in violent actions to achieve political goals and/or undermine fundamental democratic principles. As of today, around 150 instances of the prohibition of political parties have been observed in 20 Council of Europe states. The report mentions that no effective steps have been taken to investigate individual acts of violence, which is false. Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have stated, both during the sessions of the Interagency Commission and in public statements, that all cases mentioned in the report have been appropriately addressed, investigations have been initiated, and some individuals have already been granted victim status. ISFED criticizes the amendments made by the Parliament to the electoral legislation regarding the reduction of the qualified majority required for decision-making by the CEC. However, ISFED says nothing about the fact that several parties were sabotaging the CEC’s efforts, which threatened the creation of the entire procedural framework of the electoral process. With the adopted amendment, decisions will now be made by 9 out of 17 members, preventing party members within the CEC who were engaging in sabotage from creating artificial barriers to decision-making. The report focuses on the CEC’s ruling regarding the drawing of lots to determine the functions of precinct election commission members.
ISFED’s statement is manipulative because they highlight this issue now, even though the procedure for drawing lots was already envisaged for the 7th day before Election Day – a practice that had been in place since the 2023 snap/interim elections and had not disrupted the electoral process at any stage. This ruling by the CEC was supported by a high quorum (12 votes, including from four members appointed by political parties), as noted in the CEC’s official statement on 21 August. The absurd claim, made repeatedly over the years, that presents the tradition of symbolically presenting rings to newlyweds during the annual Beshumoba Festival in August as electoral bribery stretches the limits of credibility. This is simply a good example to demonstrate just how out of touch with reality such reports really are. The information presented in the report regarding the use of administrative resources for electoral purposes by representatives of the ruling team is both biased and aimed at deliberate discreditation. The claim that the activities of majoritarian deputies amount to the misuse of administrative resources is yet another confirmation of the absurdity of the report. The report fails to mention that Paata Kvizhinadze, Zaza Lominadze, and Irakli Shatakishvili, whose activities are highlighted, are current members of the Parliament and majoritarian deputies representing specific electoral districts, and yet they are referred to only as delegates. The emphasis placed by ISFED on allegedly election-motivated state programs/initiatives leaves us with only one impression: from their perspective, the authorities should do nothing during an election year, freezing all significant processes or avoiding initiating new ones. Thanks to the authorities’ correct and pragmatic policies, the country is experiencing high economic growth, resulting in a 500 million GEL increase in state budget revenues.
As in previous years, these additional funds were allocated across various sectors and local governments. Yet another baseless claim by ISFED, presenting the aforementioned funding as an election-motivated program, once again reveals the subjectivity of this organization as well as its true goals. Presenting the paid internship program in the public sector as an election-motivated state initiative is nothing more than an attempt to discredit this important project. The public will recall that amendments to the Law on Public Service introducing official internships were initiated by the Georgian Dream faction back in the spring of 2022, followed by amendments concerning the remuneration of interns in 2023, which were successfully implemented. In order to further refine and improve this part of the legislation, additional amendments were made during the spring session of 2024. Accordingly, the call for interns was announced only once the legislation had been perfected. The attempt to overshadow this noble process, aimed at fostering young people’s career development, by portraying it as an electoral strategy is nothing but a cheap ploy. In every democratic state, parliaments have established appropriate regulations for media representatives. Portraying the 6 February 2023 order by the Chairman of the Parliament as a punitive measure, as suggested by ISFED, is completely absurd as it does not restrict journalistic activity – instead, it establishes order and is far more liberal compared to similar regulations in place in other countries.
While ISFED highlights nonexistent violations in its report, it completely ignores and turns a blind eye to the violations in which nongovernmental organizations themselves are involved. Namely, the report says nothing about: 1. Preelection meetings organized by NDI for the opposition in Georgia’s cities and regions during the summer; 2. Preelection campaigning by the opposition during the events of the so-called Democracy Festival and within its framework; 3. The founding of a political movement by a foreign-funded nongovernmental organization and its subsequent integration into the Dzlieri Sakartvelo [Strong Georgia] political union; 4. Joint meetings with the public held by Eka Gigauri and Nino Lomjaria together with Lelo party representative Giorgi Ushikishvili, and the public propaganda against the ruling team; 5. Youth camps organized by opposition parties; 6. Anti-Georgian Dream video clips produced by the Soros Foundation and circulated on social media; 7. Public bullying of the representatives of the parliamentary majority and their family members, including such clear examples as public threats of “a bullet in the back of the head” directed at Parliament deputies, the public disclosure of deputies’ cell phone numbers, and insults against parliamentarians and their accompanying family members in public spaces. Such a biased approach from ISFED – a discredited organization that falsified parallel vote tabulation data in the 2020 parliamentary elections – comes as no surprise to the public.
It is clear that this organization has long abandoned its neutrality, especially in the summer of 2022, when it joined others at a rally calling for the resignation of the authorities, the appointment of a technical government, and snap elections. The report presented on 4 September once again confirms that ISFED is fully mobilized with all its resources to discredit the ruling team in the eyes of the public. Our foreign partners should pay special attention to the organization’s approach and take into account that ISFED has developed into a partisan entity and is not a politically neutral organization. Thank you for your attention”, Mikanadze said.
ISFED report: from June 1 to August 20, 16 parties received 7,395,731 GEL in donations, more than 84% of which came from the ruling party’s donations – 5 facts of alleged voter bribery revealed
From June 1 to August 20, 2024, 16 political parties received 7,395,731 GEL in donations, more than 84% of which came from the ruling party’s donations, according to the “Fair Elections” unofficial pre-election period monitoring report of the 2024 parliamentary elections which covers the period from June 1 to August 27.
In addition, the report mentions that during the observation period, representatives of “Fair Elections” revealed 5 facts of alleged bribery of voters, 3 of which are related to the ruling party, and 2 to the opposition political union.
“From June 1 to August 20, 2024, 16 political parties received 7,395,731 GEL in donations, more than 84% of which came from the ruling party’s donations.
In addition, with the approach of the official pre-election campaign, the initiation of large-scale state projects by the ruling party has traditionally become more frequent. Despite the fact that the pre-election campaign starts 60 days before the elections, the planning and implementation of similar initiatives/programs contain signs of using administrative resources for electoral purposes and blurs the line between the ruling party and the state,” the report states.
Related story: Georgian PM warns public about opposition’s “potential provocations” ahead of electons
