The Georgian Dream party is processing the sensitive personal data of tens of thousands of individuals in its offices in the lead-up to the elections. This is confirmed by documents obtained by Batumelebi from a well-informed source.
Examples of the data collected include: Are you struggling with drug addiction or health issues? What is your business? How much do you respect “authorities”? Which party do you support? Have you undergone surgery, or have any of your business ideas received state funding?
What Georgian Dream Doesn’t Know About You
Despite the data gathered, it’s important to note that neither the state nor any political party can know who you actually vote for at the polling station. Your choice remains exclusively yours, and the secrecy of your vote is fully protected.
What Georgian Dream Knows About You
The extensive and unprecedented scale of data detailed in the documents secretly provided by the trusted source from one of Georgian Dream’s offices reveals that the party holds sensitive personal data, which it appears to use as part of an election-winning strategy. The information collected and processed by the ruling party is safeguarded by the Personal Data Protection Act as special category data and should be exclusively managed by government agencies.
There is no legal way for a political party to collect and process data of this volume and sensitivity.
The documents obtained by Batumelebi indicate that ministries such as Justice, Health, Education, Internal Affairs, Agriculture, and Finance supply personal data on citizens to the ruling party. These ministries are responsible for the collection, storage, and processing of data, which the ruling party’s offices reportedly use for individual and mass profiling of voters.
As you read this article, the ruling party’s office is processing data about you and your relatives, including detailed information such as:
- Are you employed, a student, socially vulnerable, a pensioner, or an internally displaced person (IDP)?
- Have you used the universal healthcare program, and if so, what amount in GEL have you received in services so far?
- What types and amounts of aid, allowances, or compensation have you received from the state?
- Under which subsidy program did you cultivate your land?
- What is your social vulnerability rating score?
- What type of organization do you work for?
- Have you ever been detained, on probation, or convicted, or are you currently wanted?
- Do you struggle with drug addiction?
At the same time, Georgian Dream tracks your political preferences and voting history patterns from recent years.
Notably, the voting history records contained remarks such as “signature missing,” suggesting that the data may have been drawn from voter lists traditionally used by the Central Election Commission (CEC), where voters sign before casting their ballots.
And that’s not all.
Next to your name is an entry for a “Person of Influence.” In some cases, this is a specific individual, while in others, it could be a school director or a particular government agency.
What’s in the Database
To illustrate the scale of this scheme, Batumelebi examined the voter database for one region. To protect the source’s confidentiality, the numbers have been adjusted without altering the overall picture.
The database from the ruling party’s office contains detailed information on all 57,308 registered voters in the region. The first section mirrors the official electoral roll – name, personal number, date of birth, address, polling station, and exact records of each voter’s participation in elections in particular years. This information falls under the authority of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Next, the database includes additional information collected through party activities, such as voters’ political preferences likely recorded during door-to-door visits over various years.
For instance, the data shows that in this region, there are 23,892 undecided voters, 17,406 supporters of Georgian Dream, 6,342 supporters of the United National Movement, and 1,046 supporters of European Georgia. Comparing this data with CEC results reveals that in the last election, Georgian Dream received 12,562 votes from its supporters – 49% of the region’s total voter turnout.
The database also includes phone numbers and criminal status information, which suggests access to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Penitentiary Department, and/or the courts.
According to the data for this region:
1,820 people have been held in a temporary detention center. Among them, 634 are supporters of the Georgian Dream, and 816 are undecided.
At the time of data collection, there were 294 individuals on probation and 1,274 former probationers. Among these, 534 people (93 current probationers and 441 former) were marked as Georgian Dream supporters, while 690 (144 current and 546 former probationers) were undecided voters.
As it turns out, there were seven wanted individuals in the region by the time of data collection. However, the party lists five of these voters as “undecided” in door-to-door visits, with one marked as a supporter of the United National Movement party. Additionally, 146 former wanted individuals have been identified in the region, of whom 48 are listed as Georgian Dream supporters, and 73 as undecided.
A total of 3,630 voters in the region have criminal records, with 1,294 identified as Georgian Dream supporters and 1,552 as undecided.
Among the 940 people who have been incarcerated, 325 were declared as supporters of the ruling party, while 453 were listed as undecided.
The following data relates to drug addiction and is marked as “yes” or “no.” It may come from a methadone program, though it’s likely from the Ministry of Internal Affairs or Penitentiary Service records, given its inclusion with criminal status records. In total, 943 voters in the region are marked as having drug addiction issues; among them, 367 support Georgian Dream, while 391 are undecided.
At the time of data collection, a total of 4,506 voters in this region had at least one criminal status. Of these, 1,614 were marked as Georgian Dream supporters, and 1,912 as undecided.
The second section of the database outlines voters’ social statuses – information accessible to the Ministries of Health, Education, Finance, and Revenue, as well as the Central Election Commission.
In this region:
132 people are registered as displaced persons, with five identified as Georgian Dream supporters and 105 as undecided. The data includes specifics on ineligibility for certain IDP programs or pending applications for status, with 35 having current applications (27 of whom lack IDP status). Additionally, 110 individuals have received state-provided housing.
The database details which state benefits each voter has received. Among 11,293 voters who obtained at least one benefit, 4,171 are identified as Georgian Dream supporters, while 436 are undecided.
The state benefits listed include:
- Age-based compensation
- Family member loss compensation
- Disability compensation
- Service-based compensation
- Age-based state pension
- Regression pension
- Household subsidy
- Social packages
- Social packages for compensation recipients
- Social benefits for highland residents
- Additions for social package recipients
For instance, 39 voters are marked as recipients of disability compensation, of whom 18 are Georgian Dream supporters, and 12 are undecided.
A total of 253 recipients of supplement to the social package are identified as Georgian Dream supporters, and 186 are undecided, making up 568 voters in total.
Among 2,503 social package recipients, 879 are noted as Georgian Dream supporters, while 999 are undecided.
The database also tracks the specific amounts each voter has received under the universal healthcare program for services like surgeries, consultations, and medical tests. Data shows that 29,667 voters in this region have used the program.
417 individuals have received over 10,000 GEL in funding for medical services from the Universal Healthcare System; of these, 170 are Georgian Dream supporters, and 145 are undecided. The minimum recorded funding is 5 GEL, while the maximum is 204,981 GEL, attributed to a voter marked as undecided.
Social allowances are listed by category, for example:
- Up to 41 GEL – 143 voters: 50 Georgian Dream supporters, 59 undecided
- 41 to 51 GEL – 2 voters: Georgian Dream
- 11 to 101 GEL – 208 voters: 78 Georgian Dream supporters, 86 undecided
- Over 101 GEL – 10,940 voters: 4,041 Georgian Dream supporters, 4,253 undecided
Total: 11,293.
The social vulnerability rating scores of 5,736 voters are also listed:
- <30,001 – 685 voters: 232 Georgian Dream, 406 undecided
- 30,001-57,001 – 1,373 voters: 418 Georgian Dream, 660 undecided
- 57,001-60,001 – 184 voters: 73 Georgian Dream, 74 undecided
- 60,001-65,001 – 397 voters: 148 Georgian Dream, 151 undecided
- 65,001 – 2,960 voters: 1,062 Georgian Dream, 1,232 undecided
The final section covers participation in subsidy programs. As it turns out 5,728 voters have participated in at least one of the subsidy programs. 2,545 of them are marked as Georgian Dream supporters, while 1,874 are undecided.
We investigated what was happening with the most popular program, Enterprise Georgia. In this region, 53 voters had benefited from this program; among them, 19 are marked as Georgian Dream supporters, and 24 as undecided.
Age-based pensioners are separately categorized. In total, 9,218 voters are pensioners; of these, 3,372 are registered as Georgian Dream supporters, while 3,646 are undecided.
The data also includes information from the Ministry of Education on student status (level) and higher education institutions. In this region, 1,235 voters are students, with 376 identified as Georgian Dream supporters and 568 as undecided. A total of 10 different state universities are represented.
Border-crossing data is also included; when the data was collected, 3,920 voters from this region were outside the country. Of these, 527 are listed as Georgian Dream supporters, and 2,618 as undecided.
Employment status is also recorded: 38,122 voters are unemployed (11,607 Georgian Dream supporters; 17,623 undecided), and 15,587 are employed (5,798 Georgian Dream supporters; 6,269 undecided).
For all 15,587 employed voters, the names of their employing organizations, including individual entrepreneurs, are listed. Among them, 1,800 voters in this region work for Legal Entities under Public Law (state companies), with 806 marked as Georgian Dream supporters and 555 as undecided. Employers are categorized by type, such as private, state, school, kindergarten, or state-owned LLC.
Among 1,131 people employed in schools, 522 are Georgian Dream supporters, and 316 are undecided. Of the 2,923 voters whose jobs are affiliated with state-owned forms (e.g., LEUPL, LLC), 959 are undecided, and 1,336 support Georgian Dream.
The database also includes information likely sourced from the Central Election Commission, indicating whether individuals have served as election officials since 2012 (e.g., observer, accredited journalist, etc) and specifying roles and years. A total of 4,681 such individuals were found, with 1,704 supporters of Georgian Dream and 1,564 undecided.
An intriguing column in the database lists a “Person of Influence” for each voter. This may be a person, state agency, company, or agitator, and in some cases, several influential figures are associated with a single voter.
In the Georgian Dream office, they have identified “Persons of Influence” for 8,068 voters in this region. Among them, 697 voters had at least one criminal offense. Of the voters influenced by these Person/s, 1,792 identified as Georgian Dream supporters, while 4,565 were undecided.
Some Persons of Influence are assigned to multiple voters with criminal records. For example, one Person of Influence is assigned to 67 such voters, and another to 70.
The most “influential” person is noted as impacting 154 voters.
The exact methods by which these influential figures exerted their influence remain unclear, particularly the role of certain state bodies, such as the Border Police, in this process.
What is evident, however, is that the party obtained data on an unprecedented scale from state institutions. This information can be used not only to sway election outcomes but also to shape public opinion for the targeted political, business, private, and other interests.
