The pre-election climate for the parliamentary election of October 26, 2024, was uneven. And the decisions and approaches taken by the state agencies to address election violations were unfair, and biased towards the ruling party. This is stated in the “My Voice” report on the pre-election atmosphere, where a number civil society organizations took part in the mission.
According to the assessment by the observation mission the ruling party began preparing for this election environment long ago. The report states that “Georgian Dream”, in particular, hijacked state institutions, launched a massive discrediting campaign against non-governmental organisations, and worsened the election laws to suit its interests.
“Clearly, the subordination to the ruling party of all state institutions had a negative effect on the pre-election processes. All three branches and the so-called independent institutions acted in complete accordance with the ruling party’s interests. The CEC or the ruling party usually wins court decisions. The law enforcement agencies failed to react or did not respond at all, and informed the public of the initiation or refusing to initiate the investigation. This was despite the fact the voter’s vote had been recorded using various proven methods, including threats, intimidation and illegal use of personal information in the possession by state agencies.
According to the assessment of monitoring mission, a hostile atmosphere was created for nongovernmental organizations during the pre-election phase, which was preceded in April 2024 by the adoption of “On Transparency of Foreign Influence”, (“Russian Law”).
“Threats and verbal attacks against the civil service were active in the period leading up to the elections. There was not a single politician who did not participate in the disinformation campaign and discrediting of the civil society. One of them was the so-called head of the independent agency who tried to stop the activities of the observation mission through an illegal decision. In the official election advertising of the ruling party, some civil sector representatives appeared in a negative light. The pre-election campaign was accompanied by a massive disinformation effort. Practically, the entire state machinery, as well as government-controlled and managed propaganda media, served the electoral goals of the ruling party. The report states that not only the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities were involved in this process but also the so-called Independent Institutions – the Central Election Commission (CEC), the Communications Commission, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
According to the monitoring mission, “My Voice”, the characteristic trend of the pre-election phase was also the use by the ruling party of administrative resources, including legal, institutional, and financial, for electoral purposes.
According to their own assessment of the situation, a large-scale mobilization was revealed of employees of budgetary organisations for the election campaign, including forcing public officials to support their actions against their will and using budgetary programmes for narrow-party goals.
“The level of funding of the election campaign was also uneven. The ruling party received donations with a high-risk of political corruption, despite our repeated appeals. The government targeted media that were critical of the government. The Communications Commission, in an attempt to maintain a façade of neutrality, fined the government’s propaganda channel, but mainly illegally and unjustifiably, broadcasting companies critical of government. During the elections, the access to media was also markedly unbalanced. Opposition parties and civil society were not allowed access to government-edited media outlets. The ruling party also did not visit media outlets that were critical, which hampered the process of educating voters. Positive evaluation should be given to the CEC’s efforts in the pre-election phase in educating voters, registering smoothly observation organizations and observers and including a part of Georgians living abroad on the special election list. Due to the lack of constituencies abroad, it is difficult for a large number immigrants to participate in elections. It is also problematic because the CEC changed the method of distributing the functions of the members of the commission at the polling stations by lot. This made it impossible for many monitoring organizations to observe the process of distributing the functions among the members of the commission,” the report states.
The “My Voice” observation mission will monitor the voting process in all regions in Georgia and abroad.
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