The Democracy Research Center has been monitoring the pre-election environment since the official appointment of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

During the reporting period, the following has been revealed:

• Georgian Dream used the legislative process for pre-election purposes. The analysis of the content of several legislative acts adopted after the appointment of elections reveals that the purpose of their adoption was to gain the favor of voters in the pre-election period.
• In 2024, in comparison to 2023, about 47 thousand more people were given subsistence assistance. As of September 2024, the number of assistance recipients has reached a record number of 682,739 people, which is also a record percentage of the population of Georgia - 18.5%.
• In 2024, there was a significant one-time increase in the number of staff and the salary fund in the municipalities of Georgia, which can be considered as the use of administrative resources in favor of the ruling party in the pre-election period. According to the available data, in 2024, the number of contract employees in the offices of the city councils increased by 8.2%. Consequently, as a result of the overall increase in the number of staff and salaries in the offices of the city councils, the total salary fund across the country (except for Tbilisi) increased by 16.5%.
• In 2024, the salary fund of the Tbilisi City Council increased by almost 10%, despite the reduction in the number of staff.
• After the official start of the pre-election period, the non-agricultural plots of land and the buildings standing on it were transferred to the Patriarchate for GEL 1 on the basis of the decrees issued by the Government of Georgia.
• From August 2024, the initiation/implementation of state/local self-government projects/programmes has become particularly intense, which does not represent a clear violation of legislation, however, it contains signs of the use of administrative resources for electoral purposes.
• Initiatives/programmes initiated during the reporting period are mainly aimed at young people. Often, part of the programmes/initiatives involves financial benefits, which in turn contain signs of voter bribery.
• A few days before the official start of the pre-election period, the Government of Georgia handed over funds left over in the state budget for years to eight municipalities for the implementation of infrastructure projects.
• Completion of infrastructure projects in almost all municipalities of Georgia coincided with the pre-election campaign period. Association of large-scale infrastructural projects with the ruling party blurs the line between the State and the political party and puts other election subjects in an unequal position.
• As the October 26 parliamentary elections approach, the cases of violent interference with the election campaign of opposition parties have become more frequent. The Democracy Research Center reviewed only 9 cases of violence in its report, which it could verify with several additional sources.
• Facts of psychological pressure were also revealed during the reporting period. According to the information of several unrelated sources, representatives of the ruling party are taking away the identity documents from persons employed in the public sector, as well as socially vulnerable people, against their will. The use of such methods can serve both to try to instill fear in voters that their vote will not be kept confidential on election day and to influence the voting results on election day.
• According to the publicly disseminated information, Georgian Dream is processing in detail the personal data of tens of thousands of people in the party offices.
• In August, school principals and heads of resource centers were reviews from their positions, allegedly on political grounds. The report discusses only those cases that the organization verified with several sources.
• Like previous years, the ruling party is actively using the human resources of institutions financed by the state budget.  School and kindergarten teachers and employees of medical institutions have been repeatedly taken to party events on the instructions of the administration. There were also incidents of school teachers participating in a party event during working hours, which is a violation of the law.
• During the reporting period, the delegates of the ruling party participated in events sponsored by the municipality. The above blurs the boundary between the State and the official party and puts the electoral subjects in an unequal position.