Givi Mikanadze, a member of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, stated that 26 of the 49 local election observers registered as of September 25 are partisan and biased.
“Today, we present information on the local observer organizations registered with the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the 26 October 2024 elections, as of 25 September. Our aim is to show the public which organizations are directly connected with opposition parties and which ones claim to be neutral yet operate against the ruling party.
For your information, from 27 August to 25 September, a total of 49 local organizations registered with the CEC to observe the elections. According to our open-source research, 19 of these organizations, or 39%, are directly connected to opposition parties (such as the National Movement, Akhali, Lelo, Droa, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, Girchi – More Freedom, and the Federalists). Additionally, seven organizations (14%) are so-called neutral observer groups that, in reality, engage in activities benefiting the opposition. This is evident through their anti-ruling party agitation and their omission of pre-election violations against the ruling party in their reports. Overall, out of the 49 registered local observer organizations as of 25 September, 26 are biased, representing 53% of the total.
In order to establish connections with political subjects, the research methodology involved examining the public affiliations of founders, board members, and executive representatives of registered local observer organizations. These connections were identified through membership in political parties and/or statements and donations made in support of these political entities. As for identifying biased observer organizations, they were singled out based on their public anti-ruling party propaganda and/or the omission of dozens of pre-election violations – which were publicly reported multiple times by the ruling party – in their interim reports.
To shed light on the matter, we present evidence-based information about several biased local observer organizations identified through our research:
1. The local observer organization Reforms and Research Group, registered with the CEC for the parliamentary elections, was founded by Akhali Party General Secretary Tengiz Tevzadze and CEC member from Lelo Giorgi Sioridze. The organization’s board member, Megi Kobakhidze, is the sister of Ana Kobakhidze, a CEC member from the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party, and has donated 2,998 GEL to Strategy Aghmashenebeli. Tengiz Tevzadze has donated 10,000 GEL to the Akhali party, while Giorgi Sioridze has donated 3,680 GEL to Lelo. Furthermore, the organization was established at the legal address of Ana Kobakhidze, the CEC member from Strategy Aghmashenebeli. It should be noted that the Reforms and Research Group and the organization 12 Storeys to EU organized the Voice Watcher platform, which claims to conduct neutral election monitoring. However, talk of neutrality is inappropriate when connections to individuals associated with the collective National Movement are evident.
2. The next organization registered with the CEC as a so-called neutral observer is the Georgia’s Future Academy. Aleksandre Zibzibadze is its founder and Governing Board chairman, who is also the former executive director of the Girchi – More Freedom party and the co-founder of the Franklin Club. Aleksandre Zibzibadze is also the director of the Electoral Laboratory organization, which is likewise registered as an observer for the elections. Both of these organizations include Maria Darchievi as a member of the Governing Board. Under her leadership, the Mishgov Larda organization has also registered as an observer with the CEC. All three of these organizations are part of the coalition with Nino Lomjaria and Eka Gigauri in the My Voice observer mission.
3. The Education Labor Union is yet another so-called neutral observer organization registered with the CEC. This organization consists of former CEC employees and is led by Akaki Khuskivadze. He is remembered for circulating false information in favor of the opposition during previous elections. Additionally, Akaki Khuskivadze is a donor to the National Movement, having donated 10,000 GEL. Akaki Khuskivadze has joined the newly established organization Defend the Elections alongside controversial figures such as former CEC chairmen Levan Tarkhnishvili and Zurab Kharatishvili, as well as former CEC employees Akaki Kobaladze and Vano Burduli. These individuals are conducting training sessions for young people who are united in various newly formed platforms and organizations in support of opposition entities.
4. The International Network for Civil Development, led by Shmagi Chokheli, has also registered with the CEC as a local observer organization. Shmagi Chokheli is known for his support of the National Movement on his personal Facebook page, frequently sharing posts by Political Council member Lasha Parulava and Anti-Corruption Secretary Vasil Urushadze. Shmagi Chokheli is also remembered for his numerous public statements demanding the release of former Minister of Internal Affairs, Vano Merabishvili.
This is just a fraction of the local observer organizations attempting to mislead the public by posing as neutral while, in reality, being directly connected to political subjects from the radical wing. Additionally, we cannot overlook one international observer organization that caught our attention during the research. This international organization is the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), whose chief election expert is the well-known former ISFED Executive Director Elene Nizharadze. This is the person who headed ISFED when the organization deliberately withheld accurate information on parallel vote counting during the 2020 parliamentary elections, giving the opposition a basis to claim election fraud for six weeks. The ENEMO team also includes Ana Mikeladze, who left the CEC under suspicious circumstances and was noted for her involvement in the so-called “Save Misha” campaign for Mikheil Saakashvili and frequent contacts with Sopho Japaridze. It is also noteworthy that in recent years, ENEMO has involved Nino Rizhamadze in all its election-related activities as a chief analyst and international observer. Nino Rizhamadze worked at ISFED from 2011 to 2022 and is now a member of Nino Lomjaria’s Georgia’s European Orbit. Nino Rizhamadze, Elene Nizharadze, and Ana Mikeladze do not shy away from public propaganda against the Georgian Dream, which is clearly evident from their social media profiles.
At this point, we present a complete list of donations made by the representatives of the identified observer organizations in favor of opposition political parties.
And finally, we present a consolidated table that clearly shows, based on public sources gathered during the research, which local observer organization registered with the CEC is connected to which political subject.
It is obvious that the election monitoring conducted by these organizations will be biased and will have nothing to do with objectivity. Therefore, we want this information about these organizations to be available to the public and the international organizations that will observe the elections. We urge international observer missions to include evidence-based information about these identified local observer organizations in their reports and disregard the subjective information provided by them.
A detailed report on all identified organization can be found on the Georgian Dream’s Facebook page. The English version of the said report will be sent to our foreign partners in the coming days,” he said.
