ISFED identifies Facebook pages campaigning against ruling party, opposition ahead of elections
ISFED has released its first interim report of social media monitoring ahead of elections. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has identified 20 pages on social media which were campaigning against the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party ahead of the October 2 municipal elections and 25 anti-opposition pages.
ISFED says in its first interim report of social media monitoring that the anti-government pages mainly targeted incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, PM Irakli Garibashvili, ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, ruling party head Irakli Kobakhidze and Culture Minister Tea Tsulukiani, while the anti-opposition pages were mostly campaigning against the head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia, his father Anzor Melia (who is running in municipal elections) and ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
ISFED says that 32 political parties registered for upcoming elections have been active on 263 Facebook pages.
We have identified 52 public servants from 29 municipalities who have written 118 election posts (mostly supporting the ruling party) between August 2 and August 22,” ISFED head Nino Dolidze has stated.
ISFED says that they have identified two Facebook pages discrediting their (ISFED) activities.
They say that 12 fake media pages have been identified which are mostly engaged with pro-ruling party activities.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) NGO says that there was an imbalance between ballots cast and signatures of registered votes in eight per cent of election districts on the parliamentary election day in Georgia, on October 31, 2020.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is concerned about the ruling Georgian Dream’s discrediting campaign against the organisation’s election monitors, reads an official statement of the ISFED.
The Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) says that the data of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) NGO which shows an imbalance between ballots cast and signatures of registered votes in eight per cent of election districts, is incorrect.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has asked the International Society For Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) to present the list of the eight per cent of election districts where, per the NGO, the ballots cast outnumber the signatures of registered voters. ISFED admitted to a mistake in its data of the parallel vote count on the weekend, while the data has been used so far by opposition parties ‘as evidence’ that the ‘elections were fabricated’.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has criticised interim election reports of Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has published its final report on the monitoring of 2021 municipal elections, which reads that the financial and administrative resources of the ruling Georgian Dream Party hindered an equal election environment.