Ruling party official names monitoring organisations registered with Election Commission exposed for their ties to political entities, activities against GD

Givi Mikanadze, the Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Education, Science and Youth Affairs, on Tuesday named monitoring missions registered with the Central Election Commission, which, according to him, had been exposed for their ties to political entities and activities against the Georgian Dream party.

In his remarks, Mikanadze added that one month ago, on September 27, at the ruling party’s interim briefing on the same topic, out of 49 registered organisations, 19 were found to have direct ties with the opposition, and seven local monitoring organisations were identified as acting against the Georgian Dream party.

He further noted that one monitoring organisation, specifically the Center for Law and Equality, affiliated with the United National Movement and Ahali parties had its registration revoked by the election administration following the presentation of the Georgian Dream interim report.

“Since the interim report on September 25, an additional 53 local monitoring organisations have registered with the Central Election Commission. The Georgian Dream conducted monitoring based on open sources to identify the political affiliations of these organisations. The methodology involved examining the public connections of founders, board members, and executive representatives of registered local monitoring organisations with political entities, through membership in political groups, statements made in their favour, and donations. As for biassed monitoring organisations, they were identified through their public propaganda against the ruling party and their refusal to reflect various pre-election violations in their interim reports, despite these violations being repeatedly announced publicly by the ruling party”, Mikanadze claimed.

He highlighted that the research revealed that out of 102 organisations registered by the Central Election Commission, 37 were directly connected to political parties, meaning every third organisation, or 36 percent, was directly affiliated with political entities. And during the monitoring, it was also found that 16 organisations were conducting campaigns against the Georgian Dream as evidenced by their reports and public activities. Consequently, based on research grounded in public sources, it was identified that more than half (52 percent) of the 102 local monitoring organisations registered with the Central Election Commission are engaged in activities against the Georgian Dream”, Mikanadze said.

The official further presented information on several organisations exposed by this research, which would once again demonstrate to the public who intended to monitor the elections and who planned to draft conclusions about the polls.

“The Central Election Commission registered the monitoring organisation Critical Citizen, whose director is Nugzar Khozrevanidze, and board members include Marad Shavazde, Rismagi Khozrevanidze, and Nodar Dzirkvadze. Nugzar Khozrevanidze was detained on December 15, 2020, in Batumi, during an incident with the police while putting up posters reading Rigged Elections near the Supreme Council of Adjara. He is an active supporter and activist of the United National Movement party. Nugzar Khozrevanidze also participated in a protest in May 2022, demanding that Mikheil Saakashvili be transferred abroad for medical treatment. Marad Shavazde is currently the deputy Chair of the United National Movement faction in the Khulo Municipality Council, and Rismagi Khozrevanidze is the PR manager of the United National Movement in Adjara. As for Nodar Dzirkvadze, he is a member appointed by the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party at the 19th polling station in the Khulo district. The Central Election Commission also registered the organisation Youth Initiative for the Future of Georgia as an observer. The head of this organisation, Lasha Adamia, is a member of the United National Movement in Adjara and is actively involved in party activities. Similarly, the Central Election Commission registered the local observer organisations Alternative NGO and the Center for Public Opinion Research. The head of Alternative NGO, Khatuna Beridze, is a member of the National Movement, and Nato Natsarashvili, a board member, donated ₾7,000 to the New Political Center on September 6 this year. As for Givi Nachutsrishvili, the head of the Center for Public Opinion Research, he was a majoritarian candidate in Batumi for the United National Movement in the 2017 local self-Government elections and remains an active supporter of the National Movement”, Mikanadze pointed out.

He further emphasised that these four organisations - Critical Citizen, Youth Initiative for the Future of Georgia, Alternative NGO, and the Center for Public Opinion Research were part of a coordinated scheme, noting “this is evidenced by the fact that Ushangi Mikeladze, a trustee of the United National Movement, prepared the registration documents for all four organisations at the National Agency of Public Registry. Ushangi Mikeladze donated ₾3,300 to the United National Movement in 2022”.

Mikanadze further stressed that one observer organisation - the Georgian Order, whose board Chair, Zurab Grigalashvili, was appointed by the United National Movement to a polling station in Warsaw.

“Ivane Burduli, acting as a trustee for the organisations APM Georgia and Civil Unity, submitted their registration documents to the Central Election Commission. In 2020, a covert recording surfaced showing Burduli offering financial incentives in exchange for a CEC official’s resignation. He also donated ₾11,204 to the United National Movement in 2023-2024. Additionally, Civil Unity head Nestan Dalakishvili donated ₾3,000 to Girchi party in 2016”, Mikanadze continued.

He further mentioned the research that revealed 37 organisations were directly linked to 12 opposition political entities, stressing, “from 2015 to 2024, representatives of 27 NGOs donated nearly ₾800,000 to opposition parties”.

“It will be interesting to see whether the donors of these organisations inquire about whether the funds transferred by the identified contributors were from the grants they received. It is clear that the monitoring of elections conducted by the organisations identified in this research will be biassed and will have nothing to do with objectivity. Therefore, we continuously share information about these organisations with the public and international observer organisations. We also call on international observation missions to reflect this evidence-based information about the exposed local observer organisations in their reports and disregard subjective information provided by them”, Mikanadze said.

The official concluded that a comprehensive, detailed report on all the identified organisations could be found on the official Facebook page of the Georgian Dream party, which would also be sent to the international partners today.