Ruling party Sec Gen claims Danish Government-sponsored Festival of Democracy “direct interference” in election campaign

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed the Danish Government-sponsored Festival of Democracy, organised by the non-profit organisation Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy in Georgia, was a “direct interference” in the election campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

Kaladze said the recently adopted law on transparency of foreign influence aimed to “prevent such facts”.

“In reality, this is direct interference in the election campaign, the campaign of specific political parties is funded directly from abroad, which is categorically unacceptable”, he said.

Accordingly, this must necessarily be responded to, and one must find out what we are dealing with. By the way, the law that we adopted regarding transparency precisely ensures that neither the Government nor [foreign] embassies will be faced with such specific facts”, he noted.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Sunday claimed the elections would be held on the backdrop of “unprecedented and gross” foreign interference, and further added that the development was a “very clear violation of electoral principles”.