Temporary procedure for information support to pre-election campaigning from the day of attaining full power by the Parliament elected as a result of the 2020 parliamentary elections of Georgia before the attainment of full power by the Parliament elected as a result of the 26 October 2024 Parliamentary Elections of Georgia
1. In the course of pre-election campaigning, when broadcasting social-political programmes and elections, a broadcaster shall observe the principle of impartiality and fairness according to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, the Code of Conduct of Broadcasters, and this Law.
2. Free airtime shall be equally granted to the parties and election blocs that have overcome the respective electoral threshold established by the Constitution of Georgia in the last parliamentary elections under the rules established by this Law. If free airtime is given to an electoral bloc, this time shall be equally distributed among the political parties united within the electoral bloc.
[2. Free airtime shall be equally granted to the parties and election blocs that have overcome the respective electoral threshold established by the Constitution of Georgia in the last parliamentary elections under the rules established by this Law. If free airtime is given to an electoral bloc, this time shall be equally distributed among the political parties united within the electoral bloc. Free airtime shall not be granted to a party which, on the basis of Article 30(5) or (6), or Article 391(3) or (4) of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens, does not receive budgetary financing at the time of fixing the elections. (Shall become effective from 1 February 2022)]
3. The obligations of equal distribution of airtime established by this Law, creation of equal conditions for participation in preelection debates and establishment of equal conditions for election advertising shall apply only to the broadcasters mentioned in paragraphs 4-6 of this article and only to qualified electoral subjects.
4. During the election campaign in their respective coverage areas, the Public Broadcaster, Ajara TV and Radio of the Public Broadcaster, and any community broadcaster shall allot, from the 50th day before the Election Day, in every hour five minutes to broadcast free of charge, the pre-election advertisements, and every 3 hours broadcast free of charge and without discrimination, the pre-election advertisements submitted to them by each qualified electoral subject, on the condition that the time allotted to a qualified electoral subject during such period shall not exceed 90 seconds (each electoral subject may divide the time allotted in several parts). The airtime not used by an electoral subject may not be added to other airtime allotted to the electoral subject.
5. During the election campaign in its respective coverage area, the Public Broadcaster carrying out general broadcasting shall allot, from the 50th day before the Election Day, in every three hours no less than 7.5 minutes to broadcast free of charge, the preelection advertisements, and broadcast on the basis of equality and without discrimination, the pre-election advertisements submitted to it by each qualified electoral subject, on the condition that the time allotted to a qualified electoral subject during such period shall not exceed 90 seconds (each electoral subject may divide the time allotted in several parts). The airtime not used by an electoral subject may not be added to other airtime allotted to the electoral subject.
6.The broadcaster (except for the broadcasters mentioned in paragraphs 4 and 5 of this article) is obliged to broadcast pre-election advertisements free of charge during the last 30 days before the Election Day, if it places paid pre-election advertisements during the election campaign in its service area of the electoral subject determined by Article 30(12) of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens. In this case, it is obliged to devote time to free pre-election advertisements (if the paid preelection advertisement is placed between the best time interval determined by the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, the free advertising time shall be allocated at the same time, on the same day or in agreement with the customer - on another day in the
proportion set out below. In all other cases, free advertising time shall be allocated within three hours from the time of posting the
paid advertisement in the broadcasting network, on the same day or in agreement with the customer - another day. Free
advertising time unused an electoral subject may not be added by to other advertising time belonging to the electoral subject):
a) for the above mentioned electoral subject – the time equal to the advertising time acquired, which shall be distributed in such manner that during three hours it does not exceed 90 seconds (an electoral subject may divide this time into several parts);
b) for qualified electoral subjects (except for the electoral subjects provided for in Article 30(12) of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens) –the time equal to the total advertising time acquired by the electoral subjects determined in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph, which shall be distributed in the equal and non-discriminatory manner among the electoral subjects specified in subparagraph (b) of the same paragraph, provided that the time allotted to one electoral subject does not exceed 90 seconds in three hours (an electoral subject may divide this time into several parts).
7. The broadcaster mentioned in paragraph 6 of this article, which intends to place the paid pre-election advertisement, shall submit information on the proposed schedule of paid pre-election advertisement to the CEC and the Georgian National Communications Commission within 15 days from the day of calling the elections, but not later than the 55th day before the Election Day. The CEC shall publish such information on its official website within one day. The electoral subject provided for by Article 30(12) of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens shall submit information to the CEC and the relevant broadcaster on the acquisition of advertising time in each broadcaster, considering the above mentioned schedule, not later than the 40th day before the Election Day (such information shall indicate the dates, time intervals for the placement of the advertisement to be placed during the day, and the duration of the advertising time to be purchased).The broadcaster in which the electoral subject has purchased advertising time shall, not later than the 38th day before the Election Day, submit information to the CEC and the Georgian National Communications Commission on the time allocated for free advertising in accordance with paragraph 6 of this article(such information shall indicate the dates, time intervals for the placement of the advertisement to be placed during the day, and the duration of the advertising time), also, on the schedule of posting election advertisements for each electoral subject during the advertising time allotted to the qualified electoral subjects specified in paragraph 6(b) of this article. The CEC shall publish such information on its official website within one day. An electoral subject entitled to receive free advertising time shall notify the relevant broadcaster at least two days prior to the date of the advertisement of its intention to use its own time and shall deliver the advertisement at the time agreed with it.
8. The public broadcaster is obliged to provide the sign language translation in its election-related programmes aired during the election campaign.
9. The broadcaster shall be authorised to recognise a political party as a qualified electoral subject, which, according to public opinion polls conducted in accordance with the conditions set forth in this article, enjoys the support of at least 4% of voters in accordance with the results of at least 5 polls or and the results of research 1 month before the elections. It shall be inadmissible for the broadcaster to use the results of sociological research in a discriminatory manner.
10. The local broadcaster is obliged to recognise a political party/bloc as a qualified electoral subject:
a) who receives funding from the State Budget;
b) who received at least 25% of the votes in the elections of a municipality representative body Sakrebulo.
11. The local broadcaster shall be authorised to recognise as a qualified electoral subject:
a) a political party that received at least 10% of the vote in the last parliamentary or municipal elections in the respective majoritarian electoral district;
b) a political party that, according to the public opinion research conducted in accordance with the rules established by this law in the respective majoritarian electoral district, enjoys the support of at least 25% of the voters in accordance with the results of at least 2 consecutive public opinion survey conducted in the election year;
c) a majoritarian candidate nominated by the initiative group of voters, who, according to the public opinion survey conducted in the respective majoritarian electoral district in accordance with the rules established by this law, according to the results of at least 2 consecutive public opinion survey in the election year, enjoys the support of no less than 25% of voters.
12. To determine the status of a qualified electoral subject, a public opinion survey must meet the following requirements:
a) it should be based on a recognised scientific methodology for the random selection of a representative that ensures at least 95 per cent reliability of the results and the margin of error of which does not exceed 3 per cent;
b) shall be published after verifying the reliability of the public opinion research methodology and the objectivity of the results;
c) in the presence of significant differences or changes in the results of the same or other comparable public opinion survey, a convincing scientific explanation of such differences or changes shall be possible;
d) there shall be no manipulation by public opinion or a means of raising money, it shall not be conducted by phone, mail and/or the Internet;
e) shall be based on a transparent methodology that allows for independent verification of results;
f) when publishing public opinion survey results the following shall be specified:
f.a) an organisation conducting the survey;
f.b) an organisation ordering or financing the survey;
f.c) exact formulation and sequence of questions used in the survey;
f.d) time of the conduct of field survey;
f.e) number of respondents and the selection method;
f.f) in what area or in what category of people the selection was made;
f.g) whether the survey is based on the opinion of all respondents;
f.h) number of respondents who refused to participate in the survey or did not answer the question or could not be interviewed;
f.i) selection size;
f.j) scope of error;
f.k) information on any other factors that could have a significant influence on the results of the survey.
13. The broadcaster commissioning the public opinion survey is obliged to comply with the requirements set forth in paragraph 12 of this article. A broadcaster that publishes a public opinion survey commissioned by others shall be subject only to the requirements set forth in paragraph 12 (f) of this article.
14. The Public Broadcaster, Ajara TV and Radio of the Public Broadcaster (a legal entity under public law), shall allot the time for the pre-election advertisements of other parties, except for a qualified electoral subject, which shall be equally distributed among the said parties.
15. The obligation to allocate free airtime under this article shall apply only to the local broadcaster during the by-elections.
16. The Georgian National Communications Commission shall determine the rules for the participation and use of the media in the election process, and ensure the monitoring of the observance of the norms established by this Law by the Broadcaster and shall respond accordingly to the violation of the mentioned norms. The Georgian National Communications Commission shall procure the services required for media monitoring in accordance with the rules established by the legislation of Georgia.
17. It shall be prohibited to place paid pre-election and/or free pre-election advertisements, programmes of electoral subjects on TV and radio during 8 hours before the polling and before 8 pm on the polling day, as well as to make automated telephone calls and send short text messages for election purposes.
18. It shall be inadmissible for an electoral subject to place an advertisement on the broadcaster that serves the agitation goals of another electoral subject within the advertising time. The advertisement of the electoral subject shall not contain elements of advertisement conducive to the election of another electoral subject, including its representative, serial number and symbols.
19. In the course of political/pre-election advertising, the total of the single contours of the letters indicating the name of the electoral subject and the single contours of the numbers indicating the serial number of his/her participation in the elections shall occupy not less than 10% of the frame area. In addition, the advertisement must be made in such a way that at the end of the advertisement, the name and serial number of the electoral subject are displayed for at least the last one second, so that the total of the single contours of the letters denoting the name and the number of contours of the serial numbers occupies less than 50% of the frame area. In the case of violation of the rule established by this paragraph, the broadcaster shall not place the relevant political/pre-election advertisement.
20. The broadcaster shall be prohibited from allocating more airtime than the corresponding fee paid for the placement of paid advertisements to the relevant electoral subject or allocating more time than that provided for by this law for the placement of free advertisements. The action provided for in this paragraph shall be deemed a prohibited donation.
Organic Law of Georgia No 6723 of 2 July 2020 – website, 3.7.2020
Organic Law of Georgia No 672 of 22 June 2021 – website, 24.6.2021
