State Audit Office has initiated to create a temporary commission to monitor the financing of political parties ahead of the upcoming
local elections in June.
GHN is offering an article on
this subject which was originally published by DFWatch on Wednesday, 26 February.
The new body
will be staffed by people from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and will
be based at the State Audit Office.
Its general
director, Lasha Tordia, on Tuesday met
with NGO representatives and decided to create a commission to oversee party
financing ahead of the upcoming local elections in June.
Shortly before
the parliamentary election in 2012, when billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili went
into politics, Mikheil Saakashvili’s government brought in new restrictions on
party financing, and the State Audit Office was instructed to monitor the new
rules.
Before that,
political parties had to present financial reports to the Central Election
Commission annually. In an election year, the deadline would be the month after
the election.
During the election campaign ahead of
the 2012 parliamentary election, the Saakashvili government used financing
monitoring as a lever against its challenger, the Georgian Dream coalition.
Members of the coalition were given fines in the amount of tens of millions of
lari and many of them were restricted from getting involved in the election
campaign.
Some barriers
were removed after the change of government, but the State Audit Office is
still in charge of monitoring party financing. Now, the office has decided to create
a commission to work on party financing issues.
Members of the commission will be
representatives of NGOs who will monitor the process of financing political
parties. It is still unknown who the NGO members of the commission will be.
Opposition
parties say the issue should have been solved after consultations with
political parties and reaching a consensus with them.
“I hope this
issue will become a subject of discussion and that they won’t announce the
decision post factum. I hope this will be a subject of common agreement,”
Mamuka Katsidadze from the New Rightists Party told DF Watch.
