Givi Mikanadze is a member of parliament’s majority. He claims that 53 of the 102 local monitoring organisations registered with the CEC are involved in activities against “Georgian Dream”. He made this announcement at a press conference held at the party’s office.
Mikanadze also stated that 37 of the organizations registered are “directly associated with political parties”.
Mikanadze also called on international monitoring missions to “reflect these information on the monitoring organisations in their reports and do not take into consideration the subjective information they received from them”.
“Today, we would like you to know about the monitoring organizations registered with the CEC that are exposed for their political activities and against the “Georgian Dream”.
We remind you that we conducted an interim briefing 1 month ago on September 27 on the same topic. Out of 49 registered organisations, 19 were identified directly as being connected to the opposition, and 7 local monitoring groups operating against the “Georgian Dream”.
It is important to note that the CEC, after we presented the interim report based on the organization’s own statement, cancelled the “Law and Equality Center” which is affiliated with “National Movement“, “Akhali”, and was based on the organization’s own statement.
53 local monitoring organisations were registered with CEC after the interim report on September 25.
“Georgian Dream”, a monitoring group based on public sources, conducted a surveillance to determine the links between these organizations and political entities.
The research methodology used was based on the public relations between the founders, executive branch and board representatives of the registered local monitor organizations and political entities, as expressed by their membership and/or donations in their favor.
As for the biased monitor organizations, they can be identified by their propaganda in the public space against the ruling party and/or their refusal to reflect many pre-election violation against the “Georgian Dream”, publicly announced by ruling team.
The research revealed that 37 out of 102 registered organizations by the CEC are directly affiliated to political parties. That is, one third of them, or 36%, are in fact directly affiliated.
In the framework of monitoring it was also established 16 organizations were engaged in a political campaign against the ruling party, “Georgian Dream”, as confirmed by their reports and public actions, i.e., 16% of those registered.
A research based on sources public revealed that 53 out of 102 local monitoring organisations registered with the CEC or more than half (52%), are involved in activities against the “Georgian Dream”.
We will now, as an illustration, present information about a few organizations that were exposed as a consequence of the research. This will once again convince those who want to monitor the election and who are going to draw conclusions about the election.
CEC registered the monitoring organization “Critical Citizen”, whose director Nugzar Khozrevanidze is, and board members Marad Shavadze Rismagi Khozrevanidze Nodar Dzirkvadze. Nugzar Khozrevanidze was arrested on December 15, 2020 near the High Council of Adjara, Batumi, during an incident with police. He was pasting “posters”, “fake elections” onto the building. He is a supporter and activist for the “National Movement”. Nugzar Khozrevanidze participated in a rally in May 2022 demanding that Mikheil Sakashvili be sent abroad for treatment.
Marad Shavadze remains the deputy chairman of “United National Movement“, a faction in the Khulo Municipality Council. Rismagi Khozrevanidze, on the other hand, is the PR manager for the “United National Movement”, Adjara. Nodar Dzirkvadze is a member of “Strategy Agmashenebeli”, in the 19th precinct election of Khulo District.
CEC has registered “Youth Initiative for Future Georgia”, as a monitoring organisation. Lasha Adamia is the chairman of this organization and is a member in good standing of “United National Movement”, Adjara.
The CEC also registered “Alternative NGO”, and “Public Opinion Research Center”, as local monitoring organizations. Khatuna Beridze, the chairman of “Alternative NGO”, is a party member of “National Movement”. Nato Natsarashvili is a board member of this organization and donated 7,000 GEL on September 6, 2017 to the Akhali party. Givi Nakhutsrishvili is the chairman of “Public Opinion Research Center”. He was a candidate from the “United National Movement”, for the majority in Batumi in the local elections of 2017. He is still a supporter of “United National Movement”.
We would like to draw the attention of the public to the fact that the four organizations mentioned above, “Critical Citizen”, Youth Initiative for Future Georgia”, Alternative NGO”, and “Public Opinion Research Center”, actually form a single scheme. This is confirmed by Ushangi Michaeladze, who applied on behalf of the four organizations to the National Public Registry Agency to obtain the status as a local monitoring organisation. Ushangi Mikeladze has been a strong supporter of the United National Movement as evidenced by his donation to the United National Movement of 3,300 GEL in 2022.
In Poland, St. It is worth noting that the organization “Georgian Order”, with its board chairman Zurab Grigalashvili as an observer, is registered. He is a member the Precinct Electoral Commission, appointed by the National Movement at the Warsaw election station.
Ivane Burduli was the person who requested the National Public Registry Agency to prepare an extract for submission to the CEC in order to obtain the status as a local monitoring organisation on behalf of “APM Georgia” (the organization) and “Samoqalaqo Ertoba”. We would like remind the public that a secret recording from 2020 was circulated on the Internet in which Ivane Burduli demanded that the CEC official demarche him to leave his service in exchange for financial rewards. Ivane Burdul also donated 11,204 GEL in 2023-2024 to the “United National Movement”. Nestan Dalakishvili (the head of “Samoqalaqo Ertoba”, a non-profit organization) donated 3,000 GEL to the “New Political Center Girchi” in 2016.
Our research revealed that 37 organizations were directly linked to 12 political entities of the opposition. It is also important to note that between 2015 and 2024, 27 representatives from non-governmental organisations donated up to 800 000 GEL to political parties in opposition. It is interesting to know if the donors who fund these organizations are interested in the amount of money transferred by the donors as a result the research? !
It is evident that the monitoring of elections by the organizations identified in the research will be biased, and will have little to do with objectivity. We constantly share information with our society, as well as international monitoring organizations, about these organizations. We call on international monitoring missions not to rely on subjective information from local monitoring organizations, but to use evidence-based data on these organizations.
Givi Mikanadze said that a summary and voluminous report about all the organizations identified can be found on the official “Facebook page” of “Georgian Dream”. This will be sent today to our international partners.
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