The Interior Ministry said after midnight on October 1 that it had “received information about the massive distribution of cash to local residents across the country.”

“According to this information, which is being verified now, the distribution is happening on behalf of a concrete political entity,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement without specifying details. “Bearing in mind that parliamentary elections are today, the police will refrain from summoning and questioning any representatives of political parties.”

Before the midnight on September 30, a spokesperson for the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, Maia Panjikidze, said that the coalition activists and its members of precinct election commissions were contacted by unknown individuals on the phone and told that they were summoned to the police for questioning over taking GEL 250.

Panjikidze said that it was “a provocation aimed at intimidating” Georgian Dream representatives to the precinct election commissions just before the election day.