The monitoring mission “My Voice” said that people employed in public institutions were being asked to collect massive amounts of personal data about themselves and their families for “Georgian Dream”. This data would then be sent to ruling party.
As Londa Toloraia noted in the briefing, these facts are detrimental to the rights of voters and elections as a whole.
“Last Week, the Monitoring Mission – “My Voice”, responded to the facts regarding the confiscation of voter identification documents. According to information from several sources, representatives from the ruling party are taking away identity documents of public officials and socially vulnerable people against their will.
A journalistic investigation, covered by the media, revealed new facts on the use of administrative resource on October 12, 2024. It turns out that people working in public institutions have been asked to collect a lot of personal data about themselves and their families for “Georgian Dream” so that the data can be sent to the ruling parties. The journalist found a special secret list that contained the personal data of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense as well as the Gardabani City Hall, Oil and Gas Corporation and Airports Union. It also included the names, surnames and personal numbers of their family members.
The information disseminated raises reasonable suspicions of facts of illegal acquisition and usage of personal data, coercive influences on the wills of voters, abuses of official power and excesses. There are therefore signs of the crimes outlined in Articles 157 and 1644 of the Georgian Criminal Code. The investigation was initiated based on information that has been widely disseminated, but the investigative agencies responsible have not yet clarified the actions they have taken. We appeal to the Special Investigation Service of Georgia and the Prosecutor’s Office to immediately begin an investigation into the facts mentioned and provide information to the public about the conducted investigation, as soon as possible. Such facts harm both the rights each voter and elections in general.” The observation mission “My Voice”, says.
The monitoring mission also spoke about the donations made by “Georgian Dream”. According to their explanations, according to statistics published by the anticorruption service in the last week, “Georgian Dream’ received an additional donation worth 592 thousand GEL. “The new donor businesses have received 17 millions GEL in state purchases. They received up to 1,000,000 GEL in subsidies from different state programs. We again call on the Anti-Corruption Bureau to study the financial activity of the ruling party, and their donors,” said the monitoring mission.
According to My Voice, actions taken by the Communications Regulatory Commission towards critical channels are also disturbing. The Communication Regulatory Commission fined three channels despite the fact that they refused to air an election advertisement which manipulated the tragedy of the war in Ukraine started by Russia. The same channels had refused to broadcast another clip from “Georgian Dream”, which was a war-themed clip, where representatives of the civil and opposition sectors were shown. We would like the Communications Regulatory Commission to be reminded of the “On Broadcasting Law” of Georgia (Article 552 and Article 56) which prohibits inappropriate, dishonest and unreliable advertising. Advertising that promotes “propaganda in any form of war” or incites violence and hatred is also prohibited. The Communications Regulatory Commission also created artificial barriers last week for the Public Broadcaster and TV Company “Formula”, which recognized the party “Gakharia for Georgia” as a qualified election entity and agreed to post free political ads – the Public Broadcaster wasn’t allowed to place advertisements while “Formula” was recognized as a criminal. According to Article 51, the broadcaster can recognize a political party as a qualified electoral entity if it has at least 4% of support based on public opinions surveys conducted according to the rules set forth by the Election Code. A qualified electoral entity is entitled to free political advertising. The decisions taken yesterday by the Communications Regulatory Commission in relation to “Imedi” TV and “Rustavi 2, “are an attempt to create an illusion of objectivity by the Communications Regulatory Commission. It cannot change the illegal decisions that it has already made and the damage done to the election environment. According to “My Voice”, the latest data shows that the number of emigrants is 95,834, 30326 more than it was on September 26, when election precincts abroad were created.
“We welcome the unprecedentedly large activity shown by immigrants in the registration process which became the basis of the creation of seven precincts overseas. However, we note that the absence of precincts for cities with a large number of immigrants is an unresolved, serious problem. We will once again call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to create election precincts in cities where the number of Georgians emigrants exceeds the number of Georgians allowed by law.
According to “My Voice”, 3335 observers are registered at this time. Interviewing them is currently underway. For 800 selected observers, 25 trainings already have been conducted. Registration of observers continues until October 19.
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