Women’s political participation is one of the cornerstonesof any country’s democratic development. The GeorgianWomen’s Movement and other civil society organizations have been fighting to increase women’s participation in politics for a number of years.Thisincludes advocating for gender quotas. It is unfortunate that during past six years, none of the initiated gender quota bills was supported by the government.

It is equally as important that issues facing women are reflected in electoral programs,followed by relevant discussions. To that end,on October 4, 2018, the Georgian Women’s Movementand thegender task force organized a presidential candidate debate on gender equality issues. Only two out of the invited five candidates participated in the debate, neither of whommade it to the second round. Particular frustration was caused bytheabsenceof the governmentand ruling party-supported female candidate, despite invitingher several times and offering an alternative date for the debate.

The Georgian Women’s Movement and election monitoring organizations paid special attention to the presidential election campaign, in order to reveal gender-based discrimination and sexism, considering that there were two women Presidential candidates running in the first round.

It’s important to note that 2018 Presidential election campaign, both the first and second rounds, have been characterized by poor political culture, revealed in personal attacks as well as in the absence of issue-based platforms. However, to-date, gender-based discriminative electoral campaigning has not been reported by local or international election monitoring groups, neither in independent media monitoring reports, besides several sexist statements from individual political leaders (Mikheil Saakashvili, Shalva Natelashvili). It should be emphasized that these statements has not received a campaign character and did not become a subject of public discussion.

Despite the indicationof gender-based discrimination facts, the ruling political team has continually triedto present their female candidate as a victim ofgender-based discrimination.This kind of statements, while the ruling party itself removed the female candidate from the main scene for the run offs,and even replaced her with the male politicians on campaign billboards, damage the sanctity of gender equality and further marginalize women politicians.

We call on all elections stakeholders, especially the ruling party “Georgian Dream”, to be more gender sensitive, refrain from presenting Presidential Candidate Salome Zurabishvili as a victim, weaker politician compared to men; and not strengthen gender stereotypes towards women politicians. This kind of rhetoric both damages the electoral environment and hinders women’s active political participation.

Georgian Women’s Movement

Sapari

Women’s Gaze

Human Rights Center

Young Greens

Equality Movement

Families against Discrimination

Women Engage for a Common Future/Georgia