Page 65 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine October 2024

bne October 2024 Eurasia I 65
Red Herring
Georgian Dream insists that a law on transparency is essential against a backdrop of alleged heavy interference by foreign powers in Georgian politics. Tbilisi Mayor and party secretary general Kakha Kalazde recently commented
on many NGOs’ “transformation into political entities funded from abroad”, signalling the ruling party’s wider suspicion of a so-called ‘Global War Party’ which backs Georgia’s radical pro-Western opposition and wants to involve Georgia in the Ukraine war, a fantasy promoted by the party’s founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia.
Dolidze, like Georgia’s pro-Western opposition, argues that concern over honesty and openness surrounding NGOs funding is a convenient red herring Georgian Dream is using to distract from the foreign agent law’s true intentions.
“The organisations being targeted have details of their finances on their website. We [ISFED] have always been transparent about our money”, she says.
The law’s true aim, Dolidze says, is to pose an existential threat to NGOs, as the fines the government can issue to those organisations unwilling to register as foreign agents are so high that “you can’t really pay and exist at the same time”. “We don’t know how far the government might go”, the ISFED director adds.
As part of their public rejection of the law, ISFED refuses to register themselves with the government’s online database of organisations that suggests they are “serving the interests of a foreign power”.
Such invasive legislation not only represents a violation of privacy and basic human rights but also a breach
of Article 78 of Georgia’s constitution, Dolidze explains. This states that all the country’s state institutions should follow a pro-Western trajectory, yet Brussels has warned that the current authoritarian course of the government blocks Georgia’s path to EU membership.
With its operations almost entirely funded from overseas, primarily by democracy-supporting foundations
such as USAID, NED and SIDA, ISFED is one among nearly 30,000 independent media and civil society organisations in Georgia that have been targeted by the foreign agent law.
“The government have always targeted civil society organisations, especially ISFED, and now they’ve created this law as an instrument to silence free voices in Georgia. This is just one component to discredit and attack civil society organisations. We will not let it happen. We will fight for freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” Dolidze says.
As one of Georgia’s oldest and largest civil societies, ISFED finds itself repeatedly in the ruling party’s line of fire. But such a reputation has pushed them to “take the lead”, Dolidze says, both in renouncing the foreign agent law and in fighting the legal battle against
it. Whilst they may be front runners, she continued, the courage and integrity
of smaller organisations should not be underestimated. “We are all together in this fight at the same level”, Dolidze says.
'Traitor to the nation'
121 organisations have joined ISFED, Georgian President Zourabichvili, and members of the parliamentary opposition in appealing to Georgia’s Constitutional Court to challenge the law on the ‘transparency of foreign influence’. Dolidze explained they are now awaiting a decision, which they hope will be reached autonomously, although it could very well be politically influenced, as is not uncommon in Georgia.
“If they [the Constitutional Court] want to make an independent decision then they have more than enough evidence, first, to mitigate the immediate effects of the law as an interim measure, and then, following discussion, to abolish it entirely”.
Disobeying the ruling party comes
with personal risks. During the demonstrations of April and May before the law was passed, Dolidze says she and other protesters were verbally attacked and harassed in text messages. She was not physically harmed, while others were, but Georgian Dream representatives defaced her front door with graffiti
declaring her a “traitor to the nation”.
“We do not exclude anything now because we have seen the face of this government during rallies”, Dolidze said.
Indeed, with the election stakes so high, the pre-voting environment is set to grow ever more febrile in the coming weeks, with the ruling party working to “control the free will of voters, especially in the regions and especially among public sector workers who are scared to lose their jobs”, explains the ISFED director.
With full control over state
institutions and a monopoly on administrative resources, the ruling party is implementing “big social and infrastructural programmes to steal the hearts of voters”, while other parties don’t get the same opportunities, Dolidze says.
ISFED’s goals in the run up to and during the elections aim to counter this far from balanced political environment. “Firstly, each and every vote matters”, says Dolidze, explaining that voter education and high voter turnout is the most effective way to combat election manipulation, which may occur from any side.
Of equal importance is protection of the votes themselves, but not necessarily defence of voters’ choices. “To be professional we have to observe these elections objectively”, she says, “we will flag any manipulation or violation from both the ruling party and the opposition, no matter what”.
Nino Dolidze,
the executive director of the Society for Fair Elections and Democracy. IFSED
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