Ruling party Sec Gen says citizens, “not foreign actors”, will decide on Gov’t through elections

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said votes by a majority of citizens of the country, “not foreign actors”, would decide on whether the Government in the country should be changed.

In comments over the ongoing controversy around the domestic law on transparency of foreign influence, Kaladze also said transparency was “not in contradiction to Europe”.

In general, transparency cannot be in contradiction to Europe, Europeanness. First of all, I would like to emphasise that the introduction and adoption of the said law is certainly important for our country, for tomorrow, in order to strengthen the statehood and sovereignty of our country”, he said.

The Parliament last Tuesday adopted the law, which requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” - determined by over 20 percent of their funding coming from abroad - to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.

Parliamentary elections have been scheduled for October in Georgia.