IFES’ current project has supported Georgia through early presidential and parliamentary elections in 2008 and important local elections in 2010. Activities have included training and procurement for election management bodies at all levels, substantial assistance to local organizations to involve them in the electoral process, expert guidance toward legal reform, and voter outreach. IFES cooperates closely with all political parties and election authorities as well as other global partners in providing the necessary guidance to Georgia in implementing its stated objective of improving its democracy to international standards.
Enhancing Civil Society Participation in the Electoral Process
Prior to both the 2008 elections and 2010 local elections, IFES issued a number of subgrants to local Georgian non-governmental organizations and media outlets to facilitate their ability to serve as watchdogs, advocates, and election observers. Subgrant recipients have also increased voter education and public discourse by producing debates and get-out-the-vote campaigns. IFES has provided specialists to instruct and assist local organizations on issues such as election news coverage, misuse of administrative resources in elections, election dispute resolution, and voter registration. In total, more than 30 subgrants (totaling over $850,000) have been issued to local organizations over the course of this project.
Technical Assistance to the Central Election Commission
Political Party representatives sign a Memorandum on the Use of Administrative Resources developed by the CEC and 5 leading NGOs, with IFES facilitation. May 7, 2010.
In preparation for local elections in 2010, IFES has provided expert assistance to the CEC to help promote a fair, transparent election process. Areas of focus include CEC public relations and voter outreach, monitoring of campaign finance and misuse of administrative resources, and improving transparency of election information and post-election complaints and appeals. In particular, IFES has help facilitate working groups made up of the CEC and major NGOs to come up with definitions and protocols to address difficult subjects such as abuse of administrative resources and electoral complaints. In May 2010, leading political party representatives signed onto a Memorandum on the Use of Administrative Resources developed by the working group and IFES.
Prior to early presidential and parliamentary elections in 2008, IFES provided extensive technical assistance to the CEC that included training for election officials at all levels and procurement of fax machines and GSM terminals for polling stations across the country to aid in the transmission of election results.
Voter Outreach
In addition to providing subgrants to local organizations to carry out get-out-the-vote campaigns, IFES has undertaken its own voter education activities. In early May 2010, IFES and local partner Georgian Public Broadcasting (GBP) produced the first-ever nationally televised candidate debates in Georgia. Over two nights, the nine candidates for the mayor of Tbilisi took part. IFES designed the debates with the input of all relevant political parties and offered one-on-one pre-debate guidance to all participants.
May 8, 2010, live debate featuring top 5 candidates
IFES is also interested in increasing the electoral participation of traditionally marginalized groups such as ethnic minorities and the disabled. IFES has been working with local partners to develop voter education materials targeting these groups, including T-shirts and informational leaflets.
Election Law Roundtables
IFES has helped facilitate recent efforts in Georgia to rewrite the election code. In 2009, IFES engaged technical specialists from each of the political parties, together with civil society and electoral commission representatives, in a series of discussions of major issues of election legal and system reform. Topics included electoral system reform, boundary delimitation, campaign finance, voter registration, and election management bodies. This Technical Discussion Group served as a complement to the Election Code Working Group (ECWG) established by the Georgian government in early 2009, which was made up of representatives of the ruling party and opposition, and tasked with writing the new law. The new law was adopted in late December 2009.