Foreign actors, NGOs, media, instead of improving the democratic environment in Georgia, depriving the population of their right to make an informed political choice at the elections, writes the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament on the social network X.

“In the run-up to Georgia’s seminal parliamentary election, due in a month’s time, activities of certain politically affiliated civil society organizations, posing as ‘impartial’ election observers, have become an issue for our democracy.

Let me start with a disclaimer: In our part of the world, when a government official criticizes an NGO or media, it is automatically taken as a sign of anti-democratic repression. However, the very assumption that integrity and independence of civil society and media are beyond doubt is, actually, undemocratic in itself. Such a belief may indicate that these NGOs and media are in someone’s service and that someone had placed a taboo on their criticism. Therefore, let us, for a moment, discuss the matter on its own merits, without prejudices and stereotypes.

Civil society is supposed to stand in between the state and the individual. However, it should also be separate from a political organization. That some NGO figure or journalist is not formally running for office does not mean they are not politicians. They cannot be considered as impartial or independent. Therefore, it would be more accurate to label them as political activists, rather than civil society. Some of these NGOs are directly linked or even affiliated with formal political parties, sometimes even bearing the same names as the parties, such as ‘Droa’ or ‘For People’. We had an instance when the leadership of an NGO ‘Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy’ simply transfigured themselves into a full-blown political party ‘Freedom Maidan’.

Moreover, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is responsible for monitoring political party financing, declared the NGO ‘Choose Europe’ as an entity with electoral objectives. NGOs criticized this decision as an instance of harassment of the civil society. However, in a few days’ time, two leading figures of this NGO ended up in the leading positions of the opposition’s electoral party list.

It is obvious that the agenda of these NGOs and media is blatantly political. They have constantly called for change of authority and, at some point, even demanded formation of a ‘technical government’ for Georgia, which they said they would run after deposing Georgian Dream. For instance, Soros Foundation’s, Transparency International’s, GYLA’s or ISFED’s message boxes, narratives, and sequencing of topics are fully synchronized with the opposition political parties, such as United National Movement (UNM), Lelo, or Ahali and their affiliates. In similarity with the NGOs, such media outlets as TV companies Mtavari, Pirveli, or Formula provide propagandistic platforms for the same parties, respectively for Ahali, Lelo, and UNM.

Beyond their political agendas and broadcasting, the finances of these NGOs and media outlets often directly service the political parties: NGOs are running political parties’ town halls, arrange ‘democracy festivals’ to help them with political agitation, or, in case of media, become sources of income for politicians. In short, NGOs, media, and parties have become intertwined and formed political conglomerates, which are often in collusion with shadowy oligarchs, such as Davit Kezerashvili or Mamuka Khazaradze.

It gets even worse. Political affiliations and financial assistance aside, these NGOs and media outlets are directly funded from abroad, through ‘democracy assistance’ grants and programs. In other words, foreign money flows into politics. Georgian legislation explicitly forbids foreign funding of politicians and parties. This norm makes direct or veiled foreign-funded political activities illegitimate and even plain illegal. Recently, some NGOs openly declared they are going to violate law by disobeying the legislation on transparency of foreign funding. Such explicit disobedience goes beyond their hitherto tacit violation of legal norms and openly challenges the authority of the state.

Thus, foreign actors, NGOs, and media, instead of improving the democratic environment in Georgia, tilt the level playing field in favor of certain political forces, thus depriving the population of their right to make an informed political choice at the elections.

Now, with the date of the election approaching, things are getting even more complicated than before. Recent research conducted by Georgian Dream revealed that 19 out of the 49 NGOs that registered as ‘local election observers’ are directly linked with the opposition political parties. These public linkages manifest themselves in that founders, board members, management and executives of these ‘observers’ are simultaneously members of political entities or donate money to them. Many of them, openly criticize the government, amplify the accusations in governing party’s alleged electoral violations and, at the same time, conceal the facts of blatant violations committed by the opposition parties.

Thus, these quasi-civil society organizations, or, in essence, political activist groups, posing themselves as ‘election observers’, claim the right to deliver an ‘impartial’ and ‘unbiased’ judgement on how the pre-election process and voting went. Needless to say, they will certainly be partial and biased, and this constitutes a clear and present danger to our democracy”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.