As elections approach, the government's intimidation of civil society organisations and critical media grows in intensity through the government-controlled so-called “independent” institutions and courts. This time, we provide examples of actions taken by the National Communications Commission and the Anti-Corruption Bureau in support of the ruling party.
Recently, the National Communications Commission and later the Court imposed fines on TV broadcasters “Mtavari”, “Formula”, and “Pirveli”, who refused to air and removed from the broadcast the unethical, unfair, and misleading advertising video commissioned by “Georgian Dream”, which contained hate speech towards the leaders of civil society organisations.
On September 6, 2024, the Anti-Corruption Bureau petitioned the Court for an interim relief requiring the heads of “Vote for Europe”, Khatuna Lagazidze, Lela Jejelava, and others, as well as the Georgian commercial banks, to submit information about transactions conducted on these individuals' accounts. The issue concerns a presentation conducted by “Vote for Europe” on July 11, 2024, during which the organisation presented the plan for observing elections. According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the aforementioned presentation and related advertising materials reflect an expense equal to the legally forbidden donations made by “Vote for Europe” in order to supposedly encourage the voters to refrain from supporting the “Georgian Dream” party. The court granted the petition on the same day.
According to “Transparency International - Georgia”, both the Anti-Corruption Bureau's petition and the Court's order granting this petition were drafted in breach of the legal requirements. In particular, the Anti-Corruption Bureau did not indicate, nor the Court has established, which party or other person having “declared electoral objectives” had been under the process of monitoring within the scope of which such a petition could be filed. It has also not been established if the expenses of the aforementioned presentation actually constitute a prohibited donation for the purposes of Georgia's Organic Law “On Political Associations of Citizens”. The Anti-Corruption Bureau's next step is expected to be to impose fines on “Vote for Europe” and/or its founders, which will hinder the organisation's activities, if not make them completely impossible.
The illegal actions of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Court are clearly directed against the implementation of the civil society organisation's announced plan to work for the voters’ greater turnout in the elections, undermining the goal of ensuring the October 26 elections to be held in a free and fair environment.