Georgia’s ruling party official: opposition and NGOs’ warnings over Transparency Law never materialised

Levan Machavariani, First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream parliamentary faction, said on Thursday that “absolutely none” of the predictions made by the domestic radical opposition and non-governmental organisations regarding the transparency law had come to pass, dismissing their warnings as “fraud and deception”.

Speaking to journalists, Machavariani said the domestic opposition and certain NGOs, which had warned the public about the law’s allegedly devastating consequences, had yet to provide any answers, including a list of organisations supposedly banned under the legislation or details of any farmers, students, or emigrants allegedly affected by it.

“Absolutely nothing that they [the radical opposition and NGOs] predicted has come to pass. It is clear to every Georgian, including those whom they managed to mislead for a certain period, that this was, excuse the expression, nothing more than fraud and deception”, Machavariani said.

He added that the situation was a good example of why the Georgian Government should never again allow “ultra-leftists and pseudo-liberals” to perpetrate violence against Georgian citizens.