Funding of political parties to increase

The future funding of political parties is to be determined by making changes to the new law on civil political unions which has been discussed by MPs at the combined session of the Parliamentary Legal and Financial-Budget Committees.

According to this legislatory initiative from the Government funds will be given directly to the political parties, both from the public purse and the Special Purpose Fund. Special Purpose Funding is designed to be spent on research, education and business trips. The funds deriving from the Government budget will be evenly divided between political parties and NGOs. The funds for political parties will be distributed according to a ratio for direct funding yet to be finalized.

The Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, Pavle Kublashvili, stated that ratification of the draft law will drawn down nearly 2.5 million GEL from public funds, of which 1,250,000 will be directly transferred to political parties. The total funding of parties will increase by 25 % and the funding of the National Movement will increase by only 10%

Deputies Giorgi Tsagareishvili and Jondi Baghaturia stated that they support the main principles of the draft law, but consultations on specific issues in the Anti-Crisis Council format should be continued. Chairman of the Financial-Budget Committee Zurab Melikishvili stated that the main purpose of the draft law is to ensure that Georgian politics is funded from Georgian Government resources so that political parties will not have a reason to look for external sources of funding. Consultations on specific issues, as mentioned by Tsagareishvili and Baghaturia, will be continued until the second reading of the draft.