Georgian opposition parties do not meet the conditions
By Anastasia Sokhadze
Tuesday, May 26
The DCI Group spokesman, Jerry Marconi, wrote a letter to US political circles on May 16th, saying that the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, had taken an important step to support the electoral reform agreement, but the opposition parties are not fulfilling their conditions.
“The US Embassy in Tbilisi immediately welcomed President Zourabichvili’s decision, saying it had created a ‘more favorable political environment for a free, fair and transparent election process.’ The embassy called on all parties to ‘fully implement the agreement’ so that the elections scheduled for the fall would be 'free and fair,’” Marconi's letter read.
“Opposition parties, led by the United National Movement (UNM), European Georgia and others, are not fulfilling their terms,” Marconi said. "The National Movement and former President Saakashvili, along with other opposition parties, must renounce threats, boycotts and other forms of manipulation. The time for political games is over.”
Attached to the letter by Jerry Marconi is a copy of the Georgian Dream's statement calling on the Georgian ruling party to stop its ‘political farce’ and support electoral reform.
The letter was uploaded to the website of the Department of Justice on May 18th, where the first letter on behalf of the lobbying company was found on March 10th. The letter announced the March 8th political agreement and informed the groups working on Georgia in the United States about it. The March 10th letter focused on the agreement on the electoral system and did not mention a statement by which the parties agreed to respond to the politically perceived cases of the election process and to avoid similar actions in the future.
The Justice Department's website also published the March 31st letter from the DCI Group, the Georgian government's successful fight against Coronavirus, and the letter from April 20th about former Prime Minister and businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili's ‘generous charity’ a special COVID-19 transfer fee of $100 million. The letter states that Ivanishvili's donation was called ‘surprising’ by the British newspaper Sunday Express.
The Georgian Dream signed an agreement with DCI Group on February 14th, 2020, and instructed the company to present Georgia's ruling party as a stable partner for democracy and the United States. The agreement is valid until October 31st, 2020, and the Georgian Dream will pay the lobbying company $33,333 a month. Under the U.S. law, lobbying companies are required to publish all activities and communications on behalf of their foreign customers.
