Campaign Beat: July 10-22

Campaign Beat. Civil.ge

With less than 100 days to go before the crucial elections, the opposition parties have continued to unite into larger groups, with the alliance of Lelo for Georgia, the Freedom Square Movement and Ana Dolidze’s For People Party being (one of) the latest arrivals. The contours of the ballot paper on which voters will mark their choices at polling stations on October 26 thus are becoming clearer. The ruling Georgian Dream Party has officially launched its campaign from a brand new, fancy headquarters where the Prime Minister will be busy rallying popular support as the head of his party’s campaign. The “Global War Party” conspiracy, reiterated by the party’s founder and honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili and and post-election reprisals against opponents, following the elections are at the center of the ruling party’s campaign, according to the speech by Ivanishvili on July 16. Independent pre-election monitoring efforts are slowly gearing up. Meanwhile, the Foreign Agents Law, which has been instrumental in making the upcoming election a decisive one, is being challenged by several interest groups in the country’s Constitutional Court.

The following covers election-related updates spanning July 10-22

Campaign Context

Foreign Agents Law Challenged in Constitutional Court. The legal challenge against the controversial Foreign Agents Law continues in Georgia’s Constitutional Court. For the first time during her tenure as President, Salome Zurabishvili appealed to the Court on July 15 to challenge the law on the basis of Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution, which requires constitutional bodies to take all measures to ensure Georgia’s full integration into the EU and NATO. Her appeal was accepted by the court on July 18. Meanwhile, on July 17, 121 local civil society and media organizations announced that they were filing a separate lawsuit with the court seeking to have the law repealed. They also announced that they are seeking a temporary suspension of the law’s unconstitutional clauses pending the Constitutional Court’s final ruling. The Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze believes challenging of the law in the Constitutional Court “can have no perspective” because “it is impossible to argue that transparency is bad, that it is wrong legally…”

Registration for Parties to Participate in 2024 Election Closed. According to the Central Election Commission, the registration of political parties without current parliamentary representation to participate in the October elections was completed on July 15. As of July 16, a total of 28 political unions had applied for registration. Nine of these 28 unions have been registered, while the rest are still in the registration process. In addition to these 28 unions, there are 13 eligible political parties that had parliamentary representation at 2024 elections were called.

IRI Announces Start of Election Observation Mission. On July 19, the International Republican Institute (IRI) announced the launch of its international election observation mission, pledging to deploy 20 long-term observers to cover municipalities and electoral districts across Georgia in the months leading up to the country’s 2024 parliamentary elections. As of July 22, the IRI mission has already held meetings with the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, as well as the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze (who is also the head of the ruling party campaign) and the Georgian Dream Parliamentary officials.

New Movement to Mobilize Pro-Western Voters On July 11, President Salome Zurabishvili inaugurated a new public movement, “Vote for Europe,” bringing civil society representatives together to “protect Georgia’s European future, independence, and freedom.” The movement said it plans to reach Georgian citizens countrywide and the diaspora abroad with the “100 Days to Victory” campaign starting on July 18 and ending on election day, October 26. The campaign aims to mobilize pro-Western voters.

New Platform to Bring Emigrants to the Polls: A new website emguide.ge has been created to facilitate the participation of emigrants in the elections. Emigrants will be able to register on the platform and on October 26 [election day] they will be provided with means of transportation to polling stations. According to one of its co-founders of the platform, Bachana Shengelia, the initiative is not linked to any political party and aims to bring to the polls some 200,000 emigrants who live far from capitals or large cities abroad where consulates are located.

Campaign Trail

GD Officially Launches Election Campaign with “Global War Party” Conspiracy and Retribution against political opponents as main themes On July 17, the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, inaugurated his party’s brand-new, grand headquarters and launched the election campaign with the “Global War Party” conspiracy theory. Among other things, he claimed the support of 60 percent of the Georgian population and said he wanted to get the majority “equal to the constitutional majority in order to finally put an end to the War Party, the network of agents, radicalism, polarization and liberal fascism in Georgia…”. He also announced repression against opponents after the 2024 Parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, it became known that the Georgian Dream campaign will be led by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who vowed: “We are not going to lose any elections for at least another twelve years.”

‘People Power’ Returning to Family Fold During his address at the GD campaign launch, Parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze informed the crowd with the news that the ruling party’s spin-off People Power will be appear on the Georgian Dream’s electoral list for the upcoming Parliamentary election.

GD Sparks Familiar Debate: Prisoners’ Issue Before Elections On July 19, the Georgian Parliament approved the draft law “On Amnesty” in the first hearing in an extraordinary session with 82 votes in favor and 0 votes against. The bill is expected to be finalized before the parliamentary elections in October and will apply to more than 4800 prisoners, of whom about 1000 will be released immediately. But not everyone is happy. Some of the prisoners in the country’s correctional facilities feel left out, leading some of them to go on hunger strike and their families to take to the streets. Many believe that the ruling Georgian Dream party is using the prisoners’ issue before elections to gain the support of the convicts and their families and relatives.

GD Tries to Win Young Hearts On July 16, the Georgian government announced that it has developed a paid internship program that will allow some 3,000 students, selected according to “clear competition criteria,” to intern in public institutions. The government said that the presentation of the project would take place “in the nearest future,” after which the competition would be announced.

Government to Award Successful Olympians with Cash During his speech at the send-off ceremony for the Georgian Olympians heading to the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the Government will gift GEL 1 million [approximately USD 368 000] to Olympic champions, GEL 500,000 [approximately USD 184, 000] to silver medalists, and GEL 250,000 [approximately USD 92,000] to bronze medalists.

PM Inaugurates Public Service Hall in Khashuri On July 22, the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze inaugurated a new public service hall in Khashuri. During his media remarks at the opening, he noted that the Georgian Dream’s electoral list will be submitted to the Central Election Commission on the last possible day as stipulated by the law, because this is what political parties “traditionally” do. He added that Georgian Dream will go to the regions of the country to campaign around the beginning of August.

New Alliance Following the lead of other opposition forces that had previously announced their intention to join forces before the election, three more opposition groups—Lelo for Georgia, Ana Dolidze’s For People party, and the newly established Freedom Square movement—have formed an alliance. Former PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party seems to be opting to go it alone in the upcoming election race.

New Party with Old Number According to the Public Registry’s decision on July 16, the party “State for People,” which holds qualified entity status and is thus entitled to free TV advertisement time, has been renamed to “Akhali Ertoba [New Union] Gvaramia Melia.” Consequently, Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, and their team will compete in the upcoming elections under the party number 4, the same number used by “State for People” in the 2020 parliamentary elections. This means that the “Coalition for Changes”, which consists of the opposition parties – Ahali, Girchi More Freedom and Droa, will appear on the elections ballot under the party number 4, as they will present a joint electoral list for the parliamentary elections in October.

“Coalition for Changes” in Martvili “Coalition for Changes” leaders visited the town of Martivili in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region of Western Georgia. The leaders, including Zurab Girchi Japaridze, Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia, met with voters there. “We, the Coalition for Change, were in Martvili and I am quite surprised that people are very much aware of the current events. They also know that we got united, they know the election number and we talked a lot about various issues…” Zurab Girchi Japaridze noted.

New UNM Chair Introduces Two New Deputies, Women Quota On July 12, the new Chair of the opposition United National Movement Tina Bokuchava presented two new deputy Chairs of the party, Zaza Gogava and Igor Narmania, a head of the party’s youth wing. “This is an institutional decision aimed at opening the party as much as possible to the youth,” Bokuchava said. She also called on UNM Women to elect a new Chair, a position previously held by Bokuchava herself. She noted that the new chair of UNM Women would also be her deputy. “On my initiative, we also introduced a change in the party’s statute, according to which at least 30% of the party’s electoral lists will be composed of women,” Bokuchava said.

UNM Chair at the Republican National Convention UNM Chair Tina Bikuchava attended the Republican National Convention held in the city of Milwaukee where Donald Trump was officially nominated as the Republican candidate for the President of the United States. According to Bokuchava, she met with the Republican leadership, including the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-La).

Lelo for Georgia in Tsnori On July 13, Ana Natsvlishvili and Medea Metreveli, leaders of the Lelo for Georgia party, met with locals in Tsnori, in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. “Thanks to Nana Bagalishvili, “Knowledge Cafe” and NDI for hosting and the opportunity to have an interesting discussion with the residents. The main topics of the meeting were the European Union [-defined] reforms, the GEL 1000 pension, the creation of 200,000 jobs and, most importantly, the need to change the Russian oligarch and the Russian government,” Lelo for Georgia wrote on Facebook.

For Georgia party in Regions From July 28 to 20, the leader of the opposition For Georgia party campaigned in the Guria and Adjara regions of western Georgia to meet with locals ahead of the crucial October 26 Parliamentary elections, his party confirmed to Civil.ge. On July 19, he visited Batumi.

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