NEWS

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.

Agenda.ge, 14 Sep 2021 - 12:27, Tbilisi,Georgia

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.

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