Georgian Parliament Speaker criticises UK-announced election grant, alleges election interference, corruption

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Sunday criticised a newly announced United Kingdom-funded grant intended to support Georgia’s local elections, alleging it represented a continued effort by foreign political groups to interfere in domestic elections through financial means - despite the apparent shift in United States policy.

Papuashvili’s comments followed the United Kingdom Foreign Office’s recent initiative to fund civil society projects ahead of Georgia’s 2025 municipal elections.

In his remarks over the matter, Papuashvili noted that despite the public presentation of a competitive bidding process, it was already known “in advance” which entities would receive the funds, specifically naming ISFED - the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy.

“For three years, we have been saying that such projects are, in reality, interference in the country's elections. We have seen that the new administration of the United States exposed this practice and stopped such funding precisely on the grounds that these funds were being directed to interfere in elections in other countries. Now we see that there is a certain replacement happening through other foundations. We have seen the grant announced by the United Kingdom on this issue, which shows that although the position of the United States has changed, political groups still remain who are trying to use money to influence elections in other countries”, the Speaker said.

Papuashvili also raised concerns about potential corruption related to the UK grant.

“As for this specific case, I personally suspect corruption. It is officially presented as a competition, but the public will see that the funds will once again go to the same organization - ISFED. In my opinion, it is already known in advance who should receive this money. If not, it will be confirmed whether the same organizations that have been demonstrably falsifying election-related reports up to now will be involved”, he continued.

Papuashvili linked this practice to alleged corruption, saying that “millionaire NGOs” benefit from predetermined donor allocations.

“We’re going to end up in a situation where millionaire NGOs will receive this money because it’s already predetermined who will get it. Not long ago, we saw a statement from the British Government when they imposed certain restrictions on Georgian judges and justified it with claims of fighting corruption. I think this is an example that will confirm there are corrupt deals going on here - where it’s already known in advance who the money will go to”, he noted.

Papuashvili also took aim at some Western donor organisations, accusing them of operating with a lack of transparency and failing to uphold genuine competitive standards in funding processes.