NGOs Evaluate Pre-Election Environment of Presidential Elections

Georgia’s three major non-governmental organizations – International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and Transparency International (TI) Georgia have evaluated the pre-election environment of the October 28 Presidential Elections in Georgia.

The NGOs say that the election campaign was dominated by electoral subjects exchanging accusations and engaging in campaigning against one another.

“This election was marked with an obvious trend of unprecedented coordinated attacks on domestic observer organizations by officials of the government and the ruling party, coupled with a smear campaign on social media. With regard to the effects of social media on the electoral environment, attempts to discredit major presidential candidates and political parties using organized pages and sponsored content on Facebook was a challenge,” the joint statement of the organizations reads.

The non-governmental sector says the election period was accompanied by the release of compromising recordings, including the much-publicized recordings related to Iberia TV and Omega Group cases, accusing acting and former high-level officials of the government of business harassment, possible corrupt deals and other crimes.

“The recordings also contained conversations about the possible illegal scheme of funding of the ruling party for elections. These accusations triggered serious doubts about elite corruption and informal governance in the country,” the NGOs said.

According to the organizations, during the pre-election campaign, they revealed the following major violations:

• Pressure on observer organizations - There were noticeable attempts to interfere with the activities of monitoring organizations and set their agenda for them. Attacks by the authorities were coupled with a sponsored smear campaign against NGO leaders on anonymous Facebook pages.
• Observer organizations detected instances of intimidation and harassment 
• Abuse of administrative resources - mobilization of civil servants for campaign events of the independent candidate endorsed by the ruling party, Salome Zourabichvili
• Campaigning on social media: In the pre-election period, observers found a number of instances of civil servants campaigning on their personal Facebook pages during working hours, in violation of electoral legislation
• Alleged political influences and nepotism - Among 73 temporary DEC members, 14 were relatives of officials of the electoral administration and 8 were supporters or activists of Georgian Dream.

However, the NGOs also listed positive sides of the process. According to them, the media environment was pluralistic and the majority of TV broadcasters were actively covering the presidential election. 

Also, the organizations underlined that the pre-election period was free from any major incidents of violence and physical confrontation.

By Thea Morrison