Financing of an election campaign fund from the State Budget of Georgia

1. An electoral subject that obtains 5% or more of votes in a parliamentary election conducted under the proportional electoral system, or 10% or more of votes in the first round of a presidential election shall receive a one-time amount of not more than GEL 1,000,000 from the State Budget of Georgia to cover election campaign expenses incurred in both rounds. An electoral subject that obtains 3% or more of votes in the general elections for a Sakrebulo (the number of votes shall be calculated according to the votes obtained in the elections held under the proportional electoral system across the whole country) shall receive a one-time amount of not more than GEL 500 000 from the State Budget of Georgia to cover election campaign expenses incurred in both rounds of Sakrebulo/Mayoral/Gamgebeli elections. These electoral subjects shall receive such funding according to the information on election campaign expenses submitted by them, after submitting a report referred to in Article 57 of this Law.

2. To finance election campaign expenses from the State Budget of Georgia, an electoral subject shall apply in writing to the CEC within not later than 38 days before Election Day.

3. The relevant funds provided for by the first paragraph of this article shall be deposited into the account of an electoral subject not later than the 15th day following the summarisation of election results, based on the CEC summary protocol of election results.

4. To provide financial support to the election campaign of political parties, additional funds shall be allocated from the State Budget of Georgia to cover TV advertising expenses. Only those parties that became eligible for funding based on the results of the last general elections shall receive the sum provided for in this paragraph. To calculate the amount of the sum allocated to a party under this paragraph, the number of the votes obtained by the electoral subject in question in the last general elections shall be multiplied by three and divided by the number of the political associations making up the electoral subject. At the same time, the amount of the sum allocated for a party or an electoral bloc (regardless of the number of parties making up the bloc) running independently in the elections shall not exceed GEL 600 000. At least 15% of the sum allocated to the electoral subject shall be used for pre-election advertising in at least 7 broadcasters who are not national broadcasters.

5. The CEC shall pay broadcasters the expenses referred to in the fourth paragraph of this article based on a contract between a broadcaster and an electoral subject, within 10 business days after the contract is presented to the CEC.