The Public Defender of Georgia negatively assesses the changes relating to the termination of funding for political parties, which will be considered by the Parliament of Georgia in an expedited manner.

According to the bill, the parties that do not use the parliamentary mandates gained, or half of the mandates, will not receive funding from the budget. In addition, such parties will no longer be able to enjoy free airtime in the pre-election period.

According to the Constitution of Georgia, fundamental human rights include the freedom of association (Article 22) and freedom of political party (Article 23). According to the first paragraph of Article 34 of the Constitution, fundamental human rights, depending on their content, also apply to legal entities. A political party is a legal entity, a subject protected by the Constitution, enjoying the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, the protection of which shall be supervised by the Public Defender.

It should be noted that the Public Defender has already assessed similar legislative changes in the context of human rights. In particular, in the report of the first half of 2008, the Public Defender considered that the termination of funding for opposition political parties due to their refusal to enter the Parliament was a serious blow to freedom of association in the country and assessed the relevant amendment to the law as a sanction against parties.[1] These assessments are still relevant today.

The Law on Political Associations of Citizens[2] defines the purpose of allocation of funds to parties from the state budget. In particular, the purpose is the financial support for the activities of the parties and the development of the party system. Naturally, parties carry out their activities outside the Parliament as well. According to Article 3 of the Constitution of Georgia, one of the purposes of the existence of political parties is to form the political will of people. It is not the direct purpose of funding provided for in the Law on Political Associations of Citizens to support the parliamentary activities of the parties.[3] The necessary expenses for the latter, according to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, are specifically provided for in the budget of the Parliament of Georgia and it is natural that the parties lose the financial resources and privileges provided for in the budget of the Parliament if they decide not to enter the Parliament (salaries, funds allocated for factions, etc.). However, the termination of funding from the budget is contrary to the objectives of legislation regulating the funding for political parties and a number of legal guarantees.

The proposed amendments restrict political parties’ ownership rights as well, along with their freedom. According to the currently applied law, the opposition parties have met all the requirements - they received at least 1% of the real votes of voters and submitted written consent required to receive funding from the budget.

According to the European Court, "ownership" includes requirements as well, while the European Convention on Human Rights upholds the legitimate expectation that they will be met. The proposed bill aims to abolish the already established requirement for opposition parties, which should be termed as a restriction of ownership. The same applies to the abolition of free airtime for political parties.

It is important that electoral legislation, including regulations on party funding and free airtime, be agreed between the parties instead of being exclusively defined by one entity. Inclusive implementation of electoral reform was the major recommendation of OSCE/ODIHR.[4] Electoral reform was carried out for the implementation of the above, including in the direction of party funding, on the basis of a dialogue between parties in July 2020. It should be noted that a specific norm, which is planned to be revised, came into force just a few days ago, on December 4.

The Public Defender calls on the Parliament of Georgia not to adopt the proposed amendments, as they violate the guarantees provided for political parties in Georgian legislation.

---

[1] Report of the Public Defender of Georgia on the Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia, 1st half of 2008, pp.60-63.

[2] The first paragraph of Article 30.

[3] Under Georgian law, allocation of funding from the budget does not always depend on parliamentary seats. For example, for the 2024 elections, parties will be required to cross the 5% threshold to enter the Parliament of Georgia, but only 1% of votes will be enough for receiving funding from the state budget.

[4] See. OSCE/ODIHR report on Georgia's 2018 presidential elections, p. 63: https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/a/c/414827.pdf