Campaign finance in Georgia is a strictly regulated field under the Election Code: the law defines the permitted sources of funding, spending ceilings, reporting deadlines vis-a-vis the State Audit Office, and liability for breaching these requirements. This page explains the rules governing campaign expenses, accountability and sanctions, and shows what an electoral subject, an independent candidate and their financial managers must take into account when preparing a campaign. Because the same rules also capture spending incurred by third parties for the benefit of a subject, compliance planning must cover the entire circle of persons involved in the campaign.
Permitted Sources of Funding and the Electoral Fund
An election or referendum campaign must be financed from the party fund or from an electoral fund opened by an initiative group of voters — for the purpose of financing the campaign of an independent candidate. A candidate nominated by an electoral subject uses the fund of the subject that nominated him or her. The account of the electoral campaign fund of an initiative group of voters is opened in a licensed commercial bank in Georgia on the basis of an order of the chairperson of the relevant election commission on the registration of the relevant electoral subject.
An electoral subject is obliged to submit to the State Audit Office information on the bank account from which the election campaign will be financed; the submitted information must also include the contact details of the persons responsible for managing the campaign fund. Campaign expenses are deemed to be the totality of monetary funds designated for the campaign and deposited on the relevant bank account, as well as all goods and services received free of charge at market prices, except the value of free airtime received under the procedure established by law. It is impermissible to use any funds other than the funds of the relevant campaign fund during elections.
Spending Ceilings
The total amount of expenses incurred by an electoral subject during a year must not exceed 0.04 percent of the gross domestic product of Georgia of the previous year. This amount includes the expenses incurred by the subject and, for its benefit, by another person, as established by the State Audit Office and notified to the relevant electoral subject. The annual ceiling on the total election expenses of an independent majoritarian candidate is determined as follows: the ceiling of campaign expenses allowed for a party — 0.1 percent of the previous year gross domestic product — must be divided by the total number of voters in the country, and the resulting figure must be multiplied by the number of voters in the relevant election district.
The legality and transparency of campaign expenses are ensured by the norms established by the Election Code and by the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens. This means that when calculating the limits, attention must be paid both to the subject's own spending and to spending by third parties for the benefit of the subject, since the law counts both together.