Georgian PM slams ISFED election report as “biased”, “lacking substance”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday criticised the recent election report by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, a domestic electoral watchdog, describing it as “lacking substantial findings” and “biased in favour of certain political parties”. 

During his appearance on the Imedi Live programme, Kobakhidze branded the NGO as a “main local monitoring organisation funded by foreign sources”, pointing to its “poor reputation”. 

He further highlighted “let’s leave the reputation of this organisation behind. We know that they are biased and do not hide their bias in favour of particular political parties”.

The PM asserted the ISFED’s final report had summarised the pre-election period for Saturday’s general elections and election day “without presenting significant evidence of electoral misconduct, simply stating that the ruling party enjoyed a significant advantage, state resources, etc”. 

He referenced the Tsalenjikha municipality in western Georgia, where administrative resources reportedly favoured the opposition, though the ruling party still garnered over 48 percent of the vote in the elections there.

This is an unmistakable proof that no administrative resources were used, and even more so, it had no essential or non-essential influence on the results of the elections”, Kobakhidze argued.

He further noted the “report claims that several economic and infrastructure programmes were initiated, which likely refers to our election programme. In hindsight, it appears we should have refrained from presenting it. No other programmes were initiated by us. Our election programme outlined four-year plans that included project initiatives in the infrastructure sector”.

The official also challenged the report’s assertions on alleged misuse of administrative resources, such as the involvement of mayors in the election campaigns.

A mayor is a political official, and his participation in the elections is not an administrative resource, but a political resource”, Kobakhidze clarified. 

Pointing to the organisation’s claims of participation of civil servants in the election campaign events and the initiation of economic projects, which it suggested created an “unfair advantage”, the PM stressed “our support was finally almost 54 percent, about the same [the ruling party enjoys] among civil servants and they were also [voluntarily] attending our events”. 

Kobakhidze also criticised “inconsistencies” in the ISFED report over allegations of identification card confiscations by the GD officials from the employees with pro-opposition sentiments. 

He highlighted “there are two different paragraphs in the report on one page - above they talk about the confiscation of ID cards in the affirmative form, and below they add the word ‘alleged’” and added that there was no evidence in this regard.