On September 30, President Salome Zurabishvili met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin, where she arrived following a visit to Paris. The day before, Zurabishvili met with the Georgian diaspora in the German capital. According to the official press release, the presidents discussed the pre-election environment, the Russian factor, and artificial barriers to the participation of the Georgian diaspora in the elections.
Transparency International Georgia has announced that it will not be able to monitor the October 26 parliamentary elections under its name. This decision comes after the Tbilisi City Court upheld the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s decision to declare the organization and its Executive Director, Eka Gigauri, as entities with declared electoral goals.
Tbilisi City Court ruled inadmissible all three appeals against the Central Election Commission’s decision to open only a limited number of polling stations abroad, despite requests from emigrants to open more in certain cities. The appeals were all considered independently. “The [Court’s] rulings question the principles of elections such as universality and equality…” said ISFED lawyer Rati Tinikashvili, adding that the organization plans to appeal against the Court’s decision to the Appeals Court.
President Salome Zurabishvili decried the Central Election Commission’s decision to open only a limited number of polling stations abroad. “This is not only disgraceful, it is disregard of the law, depriving people of their right to vote, it is a criminal case,” posted the president on her Facebook page, also sharing Netgazeti’s popular post, indicating that Moldova has 228 polling stations abroad, compared to Georgia’s 60.
Ian Kelly, former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, and David J. Kramer, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, in their op-ed published in The Hill newspaper, call on the U.S. to sanction Georgian ruling party Georgian Dream’s founder and current Honorary Chairman, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and his party, to save Georgia’s democracy from authoritarianism.
According to the opposition-leaning Formula TV, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, Head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee Anri Okhanashvili, Georgian Dream majority whip Mamuka Mdinaradze, and Georgian Dream MP Dito Samkharadze are reportedly among the individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Speaking with reporters, Kaladze neither confirms nor denies his sanctioning by the U.S., saying that it is not much important to him.
Vladimer Tsabadze, who was unlawfully detained by Russian occupying forces near the Tskhinvali occupation line, has been freed and is now in the territory controlled by the central government, the State Security Service says in its press release. The two other individuals who were detained with him were released earlier. The State Security noted that all responsibility for destructive actions carried out in the occupied regions of Georgia and along the occupation line rests with the occupying power.
On September 27, a conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1924 anti-Soviet national uprising in Georgia was held at the Victims of Communism Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The event was organized by the Georgian Association in the U.S. in collaboration with the Soviet Past Research Laboratory (Sovlab) and Harvard University’s Georgia Studies Program.
The Data of the Day
Georgia’s estimated real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate amounted to 12% for August 2024 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the rapid estimates released by the National Statistics Office of Georgia on September 30.