A Political Party as a Legal Institution
A political party is a voluntary, independent association of citizens formed on a common ideological and organizational basis, registered as established by law and operating within the Constitution. A party is a non-profit legal entity; Civil Code provisions apply to it unless they contradict this law. The law defines the party’s creation and activity, the legality and transparency of its finances, and liability for violations, and extends to persons with a declared party-political aim using material resources.
Founding and Registration with the National Agency of Public Registry
To create a party, a group of at least 300 citizens holds a founding congress without prior permission; a notary attends and certifies the minutes. Within one week the National Agency of Public Registry receives the application, the notarized minutes, the charter and other documents, and decides within one month. The certificate is issued within 7 days of the decision; a refusal is notified with reasons within the same 7 days and may be appealed to court within one month; after the ground is removed, documents may be resubmitted. If no registration and no refusal notice followed, the party is deemed registered. By its 2022 decision the Constitutional Court declared invalid the requirement of a list of at least 1000 members.
Sources of Financing and Restrictions
The property of a party consists of membership fees, donations and, in cases defined by law, state funds. Donations may not be accepted from a person without Georgian citizenship, from a legal entity, from a public institution, or anonymously; Also prohibited are donations from a person subject to a decision of the Constitutional Court under the law on that Court and from a constituent subject of another state’s system of state power. Information on donations is public: the State Audit Office publishes it monthly on its website; a benefit or service received on preferential terms also counts as a donation, while voluntary services do not. Donations from one citizen during a year must not exceed 60 000 GEL in total, and each member’s annual membership fee — 1 200 GEL. Donations and fees are accepted only cashless, from the donor’s own account at a licensed commercial bank in Georgia. A party may borrow only from a Georgian commercial bank, up to one million GEL per calendar year. Accepting foreign funds triggers criminal liability of the party leader.
A party that received at least 1% of the valid votes in the last parliamentary elections receives budget funds: within the first 50 000 votes each vote is valued at 15 GEL per year, each subsequent vote at 5 GEL. Within 1 month a party may refuse the funding by written application to the Central Election Commission. The funding is lost if half or more of the MPs elected on its ticket prematurely lose their mandate; where more than half of its MPs without valid reason miss more than half of the plenary sittings, no funding is received for the following 6 calendar months.