State Audit Agency data: Who received illegal election donations?

Who violated the law while donating money to Georgia’s political parties in the lead up to the 2016 Parliamentary Elections?

Today Georgia’s State Audit Agency released data showing how much was donated to various political parties and independent majoritarian candidates, and how much these political subjects spent during the pre-election period, from June 8 to October 1, 2016.

The data showed slightly more than 29.2 million GEL was donated to parties and candidates ahead of the 2016 Parliamentary Election in Georgia.

Meanwhile the total amount of money spent by parties and candidates was just under 39.5 million GEL.

The most donations were received by current ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party, Paata Burchuladze's State for People party, United National Movement, Alliance of Patriots and Free Democrats.

How much did these five parties receive in donations?

• Georgian Dream -Democratic Georgia party - 19,005,219 GEL
• Paata Burchuladze-State for People - 4,278,541 GEL
• United National Movement - 1,063,514 GEL
• Alliance of Patriots - 1,019,650 GEL
• Free Democrats - 686,945 GEL

How much did other political parties receive?

• The total amount of money received by other political parties was 3,158,512 GEL.

How much money did parties and independent candidates spend?

• Georgian Dream -Democratic Georgia party - 22,212,663 GEL
• Paata Burchuladze-State for People - 4,396,452 GEL
• Alliance of Patriots - 2,391,046 GEL
• United National Movement - 2,524,362 GEL
• Free Democrats - 1,694,759 GEL
• Other parties/candidates - 6,253,204 GEL

During the pre-election period, the State Audit Agency learnt the legality of denotations from 1,016 persons and 84 entities.

The agency fined several people for violating the rules of political party funding.

• Seven people who illegally donated to Paata Burchuladze – State for People were fined 187,000 GEL
• One person who illegally donated to the Alliance of Patriots was fined 183,200 GEL
• Several people who illegally donated to the Georgian Dream were fined 8,000 GEL
• Seven parties and 12 candidates were fined for not providing information about the donations they received.

To ensure the transparency of political party funding, the State Audit Agency launched a new website www.monitoring.sao.ge where anyone can get any information regarding campaign donations.