On July 18, 2016, various media outlets reported that Levan Varshalomidze, a representative of citizen’s political association United National Movement, had met with constituents in the Benze neighborhood of Batumi as part of the election campaign. During the meeting, Levan Varshalomidze made a written agreement with several constituents promising to build a new apartment building. According to Paragraph 1, Article 252 of the Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens, “A party may not, directly or indirectly, with the assistance of a party candidate, representative or any other person, transfer funds, gifts and other tangible or intangible assets to a citizen of Georgia (except for inexpensive election campaign accessories such as T-shirts, caps, hats, flags, and other similar things),

From September 1, GDS TV started a series of programs in which the former Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, meets local journalists in all the ten regions of the country in a live broadcast. The program will be aired every Monday and Thursday before the elections.   Judging by the advance advertisement video, the format of the program implies agitation in favor of the ruling party. The video shows that in the program series Bidzina Ivanishvili will be talking about “why Georgian Dream has no alternative”. The video demonstrates the sequence number and symbols of Georgian Dream. The format and content of the program clearly show that its main goal is to agitate in favor of the ruling party and, in its essence, the program does not differ from pre-election advertisements.

On August 23, at 12 A.M., members of the youth organization of the UNM, first Mikheil Lukhava and then Aleksandre Adamia together with his underage cousin, were detained in the street. As one of the detainees pointed out in a conversation with GYLA representatives, after determining the age of his cousin, police officers got him off the car, and transferred the rest of the detainees first to the patrol police station and then to the criminal police office. They were finally taken to the drug test center of Senaki where the young people refused to take a urine test. The detainees were released 12 hours after the detention. Their rights are being protected by Beka Basilaia, a majoritarian candidate of the UNM.  In a conversation with GYLA monitors, Mr. Basilaia noted that the detention of the young people was unlawful and that by such acts the authorities were trying to interfere with his election campaign.

On August 27, 2016, the Chairperson of the Kobuleti District Election Commission No. 81 issued Ordinance No. 07/2016 by which Leonid Chernovetskyi, who had been nominated in the Majoritarian Election District No. 71 by members of an initiative group for the parliamentary elections of October 8, 2016, was registered as a majoritarian candidate. After the issuance of this ordinance, GYLA thoroughly studied news reports about the majoritarian candidate Leonid Chernovetskyi, and we have grounds to assume that the registration of Leonid Chernovetskyi as a majoritarian candidate was based on an unlawful act of an interested person (Leonid Chernovetskyi). For this reason, we believe it necessary that the Chairperson of the Kobuleti District Election Commission No. 81 verify the legality of the act issued by him due to the following factual and legal circumstances:

There are no separate regulations on the use of the Web space and social networks for campaigning purposes and unlawful campaigning. Together with development of technologies, the nature of electoral violations has also been transformed and, in some cases, they also occur in the Web space, cases in point being campaigning using social networks, including Facebook, and the use  of video transmissions from abroad to involve foreign nationals in election campaigning.  We think that the cases described below contain violations of electoral legislation, which was manifested in civil servants’ sharing campaigning information through a social network (Facebook) during working hours, on the one hand, and in involvement of a foreign national in election campaigning from the territory of a foreign country, on the other. It should be noted, however, that these cases have also revealed certain shortcomings in the legislation.

On June 16, 2016, the United National Movement was planning to present its majoritarian candidates in the city of Rustavi. The presentation coincided with a heavy rain. The leaders of the UNM called on the supporters who had arrived for the presentation to find shelter from the rain in the nearby Public Service Hall and the building of the Administration of the State Trustee/Governor of Kvemo Kartli. Despite the fact that it is prohibited to campaign in the institutions of the executive government, after the UMN supporters had entered the said buildings, Davit Bakradze, a leader of the UMN, addressed those assembled with political statements. After the address, the leaders asked those assembled to disperse and offered to hold the presentation of majoritarian candidates at a later date.      

On August 22, 2016, Rashid Musaev, head of the campaign headquarters of the Nino Burjanadze – Democratic Movement political party in the Gardabani Municipality, who lives in the village of Birliki, Gardabani Municipality, approached the Rustavi office of GYLA. He stated that certain individuals had put pressure on him due to his political activity. He explained that on August 18, a former fellow party member, whom he knew personally, met him together with accompanying strangers and offered him a certain amount of money in return for leaving Georgia and quitting political activity, saying that if he didn’t agree, he would be killed. Rashid Musaev refused to accept the offer, after which the said persons tried to forcibly put him in their car. Rashid Musaev managed to escape and run away from them.