Tbilisi City Court did not halt the decision of the Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Razhden Kuprashvili, which unlawfully declared the election observer organization Transparency International Georgia and its Executive Director Eka Gigauri as entities with declared election goals.
"Notwithstanding the denial of our motion to halt the decision, the court continues proceedings regarding the invalidation of the decision of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
However, the refusal to halt this decision means that TI Georgia is in effect considered to be an organization that is equal to a political party, and its executive director is considered to be person equal to an election subject of a political party, even though neither the organization nor its executive director are taking part in elections and are running for office. Due to this absurd decision, we are subject to the regulations established for political parties, including the obligation to create a special election fund, prohibition from receiving and spending any Western funding, and requirement to submit mandatory financial reports filed by political parties.
TI Georgia refuses to recognize the above-mentioned status that was imposed on us in an absolutely illegal manner. We would like to stress once again that neither the organization nor its executive director are running for election. In addition, none of our representatives appear in any political party lists. Therefore, we refuse to comply with the requirements imposed by the Georgian Dream’s Anti-Corruption Bureau.
We have no doubt that this decision of the government is directed specifically against our effort to observe the elections through a coalition and the observation mission ‘My Voice’ that was announced by us.
Even though we have not been formally deprived of the status of an election observer organization, we are in effect unable to directly observe the October 26 Parliamentary elections on behalf of Transparency International Georgia. This is the first time in the 24 years of TI Georia’s existence that we will not have a single observer registered under our name at the polling stations.
Nevertheless, each employee of TI Georgia will use our experience, knowledge and intellectual resources to assist the observation mission ‘My Voice’ and to help our partner organizations to conduct a highly qualified election observation mission. These barriers will not stop us.
We continue to fight for the European future of our homeland! We will protect everyone's votes!", - the statement reads.
