Georgian Parliament Speaker says ISFED fraudulent organisation

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday accused the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) of being involved in election fraud and working to undermine Georgia’s electoral process.

In his remarks, Papuashvili claimed that the organisation deliberately submitted delayed and incomplete documents to the prosecutor’s office.

He further alleged that USAID leadership had previously encouraged the destruction and manipulation of documents, suggesting that ISFED may have engaged in such activities to obscure evidence.

“We saw USAID leadership calling for burning and shredding all documents, and I think ISFED took it personally to do so, and they may have been engaged in manipulating these documents”, the Speaker said.

“ISFED is a fraudulent [organisation] that was financed to overturn the elections in Georgia. They tried to overturn the 2020 [parliamentary] elections and they tried to overturn the 2024 [parliamentary] elections. A fraudulent organisation that has damaged its reputation, which is willing to do everything for the sake of money they receive from abroad”, he continued.

Papuashvili further emphasised that after the United States President Donald Trump’s administration exposed such malicious networks, American funding for ISFED was cut off.

“It is important that America no longer finances ISFED from the state budget, although as far as is known, they still receive money from Brussels for their fraudulent activities”, he concluded.