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2018 Presidential Election: Attacks on NGOs and Campaign Violations in ISFED’s 2nd Interim Report

(October 18, 2018)

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On October 8, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented the second interim report of monitoring the pre-election period of the 2018 presidential election of Georgia. The document mainly covers the period of September 9-30 but it also summarizes certain events that affected the electoral process beyond the reporting period.

Through the monitoring, during the reporting period ISFED identified 1 case of confrontation on political grounds; 1 case of possible vote buying; 12 instances of violations of campaigning rules; 9 cases of misuse of administrative resources; 8 instances of interference with campaigning; 14 cases of damaging of campaign materials. An illegal initiative of a political party about bookmaking regarding elections was also detected.

ISFED proposed several recommendations for improving the electoral environment:

•   Government officials should immediately stop harassing and attacking non-governmental organizations. Instead of trying to discredit and harm reputation of monitoring organizations, they should treat civil society with respect.

•   Political parties and electoral subjects should prevent their supporters from interfering with meetings and campaign activities of their opponents; they should avoid such forms of relationships with voters that create risks of vote buying; they should respect electoral legislation urge their supporters not to damage campaign materials of their competitors.

•   Religious and charitable organizations should abide by requirements of the Election Code and refrain from participating in election campaigning in favor of a party or a candidate.

•   Local self-government bodies should prevent campaigning by civil servants during working hours; observe political neutrality and prevent abuse of local budgetary or human resources for advancing party interests; inform local civil servants about their rights and responsibilities during election period.

•   Law enforcement authorities should investigate the possible corruption deal involving the illegal scheme of political party financing immediately and without bias.

See the full report here:

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