TI Georgia: ruling party holds sharp financial advantage in pre-election spending

Transparency International – Georgia on Thursday said the pre-election period, eight electoral subjects received a total of 18.8 million GEL in income, while spending 25.3 million GEL. Of this total, 53% of the expenses (13.3 million GEL) went to the ruling Georgian Dream party, highlighting its financial dominance.

The report underlined that Georgian Dream continues to “significantly outspend” all other parties combined, primarily due to the substantial 13.4 million GEL in donations it has amassed since the beginning of the year.

Transparency International also raised concerns about signs of alleged systemic corruption within the party’s fundraising process. It claimed a significant number of Georgian Dream donors reportedly benefit from multi-million state contracts and subsidies, leading to suspicions of improper links between donations and public contracts.

Despite these concerns, the Anti-Corruption Bureau appears indifferent to scrutinizing such donations and is instead accused of targeting monitoring organizations during the pre-election period, allegedly acting on the direct instructions of the Prime Minister, further eroding trust in the institution, the organization noted.