On September 4th, the Facebook user Nodar Mzhavia published a screenshot showcasing Giorgi Gakharia alongside nine election promises. The post claims that the former prime minister and the current leader of the “For Georgia” party has devised a specific plan to combat the existing political and economic crisis. The alleged plan entails several aspects such as the drastic decrease in consumer prices (1 USD – 1.22 GEL; Petrol – 0.55 GEL; Bread – 0.45 GEL), increase in the monthly amount of pensions (up to 500 GEL a month), providing newly-married couples with apartments and subsidizing the costs of electricity, water and natural gas.
The aforementioned list of Gakharia’s promises has been circulating on social media since 2019. On September 4-5th, identical posts have been published on the website of the media outlet tvm.ge, Facebook page News • TV • Radio • Music and Facebook group “Gvirila Gogo.”
The list of Gakharia’s election promises is fabricated. No open-source contains information about Gakharia making similar claims either during his time as prime minister or being in the opposition. Neither the official election program produced during his time in the “Georgian Dream” nor the electoral document prepared by “For Georgia” include any of the nine promises mentioned above.
- The mentioned election promises are not included in the governmental programs introduced during Gakharia’s time as Prime Minister.
On September 3rd, 2019, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chair of the “Georgian Dream” party, presented the candidacy of Giorgi Gakharia. The same day, the website of the Georgian parliament published the 2019-2020 governmental program of Gakharia, which was approved by the legislative body on September 8th. The program stressed the necessity to concentrate the effort towards the following four key dimensions: security and human rights, economic development, education and human capital development, and state governance.
Although the document covers the plans aimed to support business development and social prosperity, it neither entails the reduction of customer prices of petrol and essential utilities nor promises people to provide them with free housing and free business aids.
The mentioned election promises cannot be found in the 2021-2024 government program “For the Construction of the European State,” which the government – headed by Giorgi Gakharia – submitted to the Parliament of Georgia on December 18th, 2020. The program focuses on promoting legal employment of Georgian citizens abroad, increasing investment and exports.
- The electoral vision of “For Georgia” does not include the disseminated promises
The nine promises listed in Nodar Mzhavia’s post cannot be found in the electoral vision document of Gakharia’s new political party “For Georgia.” Released on June 19th, the document aims to guarantee a modern and sustainable state-building process. The document covers several parts, including the promotion of business and entrepreneurship. This section emphasizes introducing the economic transformation program, where the authors of the best entrepreneurial projects will be financed by the state with resources up to 50,000 GEL. However, the document does not mention that any citizen will receive 50,000 USD to start their own business. Not to mention, the program vision document of “For Georgia” does not contain any other promises mentioned in the post spread on the social network.
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