In its first reading, the Legal Issues Committee expedited the consideration of an amendment to the Law on Political Unions of Citizens. According to the proposed amendment, political parties will no longer be allowed to receive financing from legal entities.
Additionally, the upper limit for the total allowable expenses incurred by a party in a year is reduced from 0.05% of the previous year's gross domestic product to 0.04%.
David Matikashvili, the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee, stated that the adoption of this amendment to the law aligns with the de-oligarchization recommendation published by the Venice Commission on June 12, 2023.
"Our country is eagerly anticipating a political decision from our European partners regarding the granting of candidate status in the near future. As part of this matter, which is related to the 12-point plan, our European colleagues introduced the de-oligarchization clause. Specific steps were initially taken to fulfill this point, and even in the first draft of the law, which resembled the Ukrainian model and aimed to address personal interests and safeguard the electoral processes from individuals with excessive power, were considered. However, the perspective of our European colleagues evolved, and they proposed an institutional approach instead, not only for Georgia but also for the other countries in the trio, including Moldova and Ukraine. Following this development, the Venice Commission issued a conclusion on de-oligarchization. In response, the Georgian government formulated a de-oligarchization strategy, which places a greater emphasis on electoral processes to ensure that individuals with excessive power cannot unduly influence them. The Venice Commission's conclusion explicitly states that, for this purpose, legal entities should be prohibited from financing political parties. Consequently, based on the government's announced strategy, we have decided to develop the aforementioned changes", said Davit Matikashvili.
According to him, the draft law also includes a fine for making a prohibited donation by a legal entity. The initiators of the bill are members of the parliament: Mamuka Mdinaradze, Givi Mikanadze, David Matikashvili, Rati Ionatamishvili, and Irakli Shatakishvili.
