The ruling party Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia received 48% of the total donations made to electoral subjects. To compare with data from previous years, the Georgian Dream received 66% of the total donations during the parliamentary election year in 2016 and 88% - during the local self-government election year in 2017. The reduction of the difference between the volume of donations received by the ruling and other parties can be explained by the fact that the party “Lelo for Georgia” and the electoral bloc “Giorgi Vashadze – the Builder Strategy” joined the list of traditionally financially-strong parties – this is what the Transparency International Georgia has studied in its latest report released today.
Accroding to TI, out of 50 electoral subjects, 29 received donations from January 1, 2020, to October 15, 2020. The total sum of donations received by these subjects is GEL 35 376 394, out of which GEL 17 086 626 went to the ruling party Georgian Dream – Democratic Movement, GEL 5 075 844 to - Lelo for Georgia, while the parties making up the electoral bloc United National Movement, United Opposition – “Strength in Unity” received GEL 3 735 583.
98% of the total donations received by 29 electoral subjects came from natural persons, while the remaining 2% - from legal entities. Nearly 1/3 of the political party donors contributed more than the average annual salary (GEL 11 040[2]) in Georgia. Approximately 82% of the total donations received by all parties are from such donors, which points to the dependency on large donors – TI said.
