Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes a blog post of Irina Mamulashvili: What impact the 2020 parliamentary elections may have on the European future of Georgia - Opinions of Euro parliamentarians. Representatives of the organization spoke to those members of the European Parliament who work on issues related to Eastern Partnership countries. They welcome transition of Georgia to a new electoral system, talk about possible development scenarios and name important challenges for the country. “The 2020 parliamentary elections provide Georgia with an opportunity to assure the European Union and its member states that the country is well prepared for integration”, - Andrew Kubilius states. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Civil Platform 20/20 releases the unscheduled report on the election of temporary members of the district election commissions for the October 31, 2020 election.  "The “Civic Platform 20/20” believes that when selecting temporary members of district commissions, the CEC paid insufficient attention to the study of candidates' professionalism and impartiality. The commission did not use public information in the study, which is public not only for the Central Election Commission but also for any citizen. Only one candidate expressed a desire to participate in the competition announced in 16 districts out of 72 election districts, indicating that the Central Election Commission failed to make full use of the public information mechanisms, thus failing to inform persons with election certificates. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. As International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) informs, in Georgia, a “Facebook” library of political advertisementsenacted on August 7. “According to rules of “Facebook”, advertisements that are uploaded on the platform and touch upon elections, social and political issues, are required to have a respective declaration, while those posting such advertisements must pass authorization. When uploading a political advertisement, a person posting it is obliged to indicate his/her identity and attach a note about contact information ofa payer (“Paid for by” disclaimer). Additional transparency of political advertisements will facilitate reduction of interference into the elections and greater accountability of those posting advertisements”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Center for Development and Democracy (CDD) will act as a local observation organization during the parliamentary election of October 31, 2020. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The “No to Phobia!” civil platform expresses its concern in regard to the xenophobic/ Turkophobic rhetoric of the political party “Alliance of Patriots” and considers that activities of the party contain signs of stirring up ethnic tensions, which is prohibited under Paragraph 3 of Article 23 of the Constitution of Georgia. “Political parties enjoy freedom of expression and hence they have the right to express their views publicly, even if it is incorrect and misleading, however, at the same time, they have a high responsibility to not use a political platform for causing misunderstanding among various groups of the society and creating new hotbeds of conflict. The latter is especially dangerous in the reality of Georgia”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association responds to presentation of the third phase of an anti-crisis plan, launched by the Government on August 6, 2020 against the impact of CODVID-19, and considers that focusing attention on Bidzina Ivanishvili while conducting presentation serves pre-election campaign goals. “In communication with public, draw a clear line between support of the state and party initiatives. It should be apparent that development of social programs is a responsibility of the state and not a good will of the ruling party; It must convince public that steps taken by it in the pre-election period are part of a long-term anti-crisis plan and not manipulations aimed at winning hearts of voters. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, the Government failed to pass this test, mainly due to its constant emphasis on the role of Bidzina Ivanishvili. An example of this is information published on the official Facebook page of Prime Minister, according to which such a large-scale social assistance was made available at the “StopCov Foundation”, including through the support of Bidzina Ivanishvili. Before that, he had stated it personally too. In fact, Minister of Finance had the same position when he said that this large-scale campaign was financially supported by the main donor of the foundation (Chairman of the ruling party was meant)”, - is stated in the information released by GYLA. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes an evaluation of a process of selection of professional members of the Supreme Election Commission of Adjara.  “Final report of an international monitoring mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, prepared after the 2018 presidential elections in Georgia, talks about changing the rule of staffing the election administration, which is going to promote more balanced political representation. The problem is a likelihood that in line with the current rule of appointment of members of commission one party can have more than one representative in the election commission, which fact increases a degree of political influence at election commissions of all levels.  On this background, existence of objective criteria for selection of professional members becomes more important in order to make sure that bodies involved in the process of administration of elections enjoy public trust and there is no feeling that they are politically biased”, - is stated in the evaluation. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented the second interim report on monitoring of the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia to public today. The second interim report focuses on the period from July 5 to August 3, 2020. It also covers individual cases that were initiated before July 5 and continued during the monitoring period or became known within the monitoring period. ISFED has been monitoring the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia since June 1. The monitoring is carried out with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) evaluates an electoral reform of 2019-2020 years. “Through the efforts of local stakeholders and international partners, on June 13, 2019, there was conducted the first meeting of the working group on election issues at the Parliament of Georgia. Even after lengthy deliberations and agreement of the majority of the working group on certain issues, relevant amendments were not reflected in elaborated and submitted drafts”, - is stated in the analysis prepared by ISFED, - “Present document contains a review of recommendations, provided by ISFED and Transparency International Georgia on the most important issues of the electoral reform, and changes made in legislation”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

From August 2020, Facebook will make authorization for election and political advertisements in Georgia mandatory.  It is stated in a letter , which Gabriella Cseh, Facebook Public Policy Director for Central and Eastern Europe, sent to Georgian non-governmental organizations and media in response.  Read more…  Source: www.humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) responds to resignation of Lasha Komakhidze, Mayor of Batumi, on July 16.  “As GYLA considers, manipulation of deadlines by Mayor and the ruling majority is disrespect to voters. By taking this step, they have deprived residents of the city of the opportunity to appoint Head of their own city themselves, to make a political choice”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy has been monitoring the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia since June 1. “The monitoring is carried out with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union. The first interim report on the monitoring of the pre-election period mainly covers the period from June 1 through July 4, 2020, as well as developments that have been initiated before June 1 and continued also during the monitoring period”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has presented the first interim report on pre-election monitoring of the 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia. According to observation of ISFED, during the reporting period there have been revealed: 19 facts of alleged electoral bribery, including 16 cases committed by Majoritarian Members of Parliament of Georgia, while 3 – by “Movement for the future – Momo”, 2 facts of alleged use of state resources, 1 fact of pressure on an observer of ISFED, 2 facts of obstruction in political activity, 1 fact of pressure / threatening probably on political grounds. Besides, as the organization found, in the months of March-June there have been detected cases of distribution of food and/or medical packages to population performed by certain Majoritarian Members of Parliament within the framework of various social events, which fact contains signs of bribing voters - an action prohibited by Article 252 of the Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens”. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. On July 2, the Parliament of Georgia supported amendment of the election legislation in the third reading. “We welcome this fact, as a lot of election issues will be better resolved. Take a look at a brief overview of basic changes and remaining problems”, - is stated in the information published in this regard on the website of Transparency International Georgia. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and the Human Rights Center (HRC) call on both the Government and Parliament of Georgia to promptly provide public with information regarding the pandemic, what legal reality is going to exist after July 15. “We consider that prompt update of public on existence/nonexistence of restrictions related to the pandemic is given a special importance by the election year and processes, because full conduct of the election process and free expression of the will of electorate highly depends on legislative regulation of fight against the pandemic”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gdi.ge

Tbilisi. On July 1, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) published a document evaluating pre-election environment of the 2020 parliamentary elections. It contains a review of current situation in the country in terms of election legislation, political and media pluralism, as well as of those important socio-political processes that developed in the country before July 2020. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has submitted its conclusion on draft amendments to the election legislation to the Parliament. The organization positively appraises the process of drafting the bill, the open format, which has been going on for a year.  “Despite positive changes (a new model of funding parties, restriction of engagement of people employed in budgetary organizations in the election agitation, additional regulations prohibiting use of administrative resources, etc.), there are still remaining issues, which we consider critically important to conduct fair elections: Control of expression of the will of voters... Staffing of the election administration... Gender quotas”...  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), part of local self-government bodies has been engaged in a campaign in favor of the ruling party since April 2020, using official “Facebook” pages. Besides the campaign in favor of the ruling party, some municipalities are also involved in a campaign that benefits majoritarian deputies of the Parliament of Georgia. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Today, the supreme legislative body approved the draft amendments according to which the 2020 parliamentary elections will be held by the rules which are different from existing ones so far. According to the new regulation, 120 MPs will be elected proportionally and by 30 majoritarian rules. GYLA believes that the best solution would be to abolish the majoritarian part completely, but, given the current political context, as well as the March 8th consensus, it welcomes and supports the change. We appreciate and commend the contribution of those involved in this process, from the creation of the negotiation format by the international facilitators to the voting. We would also like to note that after these amendments are made, it is necessary to take steps to improve the electoral legislation, such as: the introduction of effective mechanisms prohibiting the control of the will of the electorate; fair gender quotas and professional election administration which is staffed based on the political consensus. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. We the Georgian civil society representatives, civic activists and media representatives, would like to draw your attention to the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia and continued attempts of political interest groups and foreign actors to undermine free and equal election environment by using disinformation and Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) on Facebook, jeopardizing democracy and Georgia’s Western integration. You have once said that in a democracy it is very important that people see for themselves what politicians are saying, so they make their own judgments. However, amid the anonymous, coordinated and sponsored political discrediting campaigns in Georgia, citizens are misled, which takes away their freedom of information and possibility to form political opinions based on their own judgments – which, according to your formula, is no longer a democracy. We believe that Facebook will choose to stand on the side of democracy. We hope that Facebook’s prompt action and genuine cooperation will make it possible to secure the Georgian democracy and integrity of important 2020 parliamentary elections from external and internal interference… Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes an article containing s a review of donations made in favor of the ruling party during 2019 and up to June 3, 2020, which raise questions in terms of their legitimacy and honesty of intention. “Political donations often involve risks of corruption. Companies that fund the ruling party may happen to win a large number of tenders and, thus, actually return money they have given out, or to enjoy other types of benefits or privileges. Besides, companies often bypass limits, set by law, in various ways and fund the ruling party much more than it is allowed”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to a survey ordered by Transparency International Georgia, the vast majority of adult population of Georgia (79%) considers that a new political force needs to emerge in Georgian politics. Read more… Source: transparency.ge