Parliament Vice Speaker: opposition spending “covert” foreign funds on election campaign "alarming"

Archil Talakvadze, the Georgian Parliament's Vice Speaker, on Thursday claimed the domestic opposition was seeking support from abroad and said he found it “alarming” that money flowing covertly into the country was being spent on election campaigns. 

The government official told the media that there was a scheme by which the “so-called” non-governmental organisations and politicians “hiding behind” them were “bringing” funds into Georgian politics directly from abroad, calling such financing of the election campaigns “a direct violation of Georgian legislation”.

“This is a very gross violation of the law, electoral principles, and a direct interference in Georgia’s internal affairs and domestic politics, which, of course, puts the opposition in a rather difficult position”, he noted.

The Vice Speaker added the opposition did not have any support in the country and was looking for external assistance.

Razhden Kuprashvili, the Head of the Georgian Anti-Corruption Bureau, on Tuesday said a “large number” of domestic opposition political parties were failing to disclose their funding “in full or in part”, as the body published the results of financial monitoring of political parties.

In May, the Georgian Parliament adopted in the final hearing the bill on transparency of foreign influence, reintroduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party on the backdrop of public protests.

The legislative piece, which calls for the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, was supported by 84 MPs in the 150-member lawmaking body, with 30 voting against. It requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.