About the Project

The Project “Supporting Transparency, Inclusiveness and Integrity of Electoral Practice and Process in Georgia, Phase 2” will be implemented under the 2024-2027 Action Plan to further support Georgia’s efforts to fulfil international commitments as a Council of Europe member State, including Reykjavík principles for democracy “to protect and promote the three fundamental, interdependent and inalienable principles of democracy, rule of law and human rights, as enshrined in the Statute of the Council of Europe and in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”.

The Council of Europe electoral support project has been cooperating with national stakeholders for over a decade to support democratization processes in Georgia. Successful joint endeavours and accomplishments strongly contributed to a closer alignment of domestic electoral practices with Europe’s electoral heritage. This led to excellent cooperation and a strong working relationship with Georgian public authorities, representatives of political groups, civil society, and media. The project has contributed to an improvement in transparency, inclusiveness, and integrity of electoral practices in Georgia through complex, timely and effective interventions.

The second phase of the project will be based on previous achievements, though considering new context of the upcoming 2024 Parliamentary and 2025 Local Elections. The project will continue providing high-level international and local expertise to national partners and stakeholders to suggest in-depth analysis of current challenges and shortcomings and propose actions on their further refinement. Project activities will be addressing recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, joint opinions of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The project will also support fulfillment of recommendations of the European Union in the field of elections.

 Budget: EUR 500 000 

 Duration: 1 January 2024 - 31 December 2025

 Continuation of the Project Supporting Transparency, Inclusiveness and Integrity of Electoral Practice and Process in Georgia

How does the Project work?

The Council of Europe’s Elections Observation and Support Division coordinates the overall implementation of the project. 

The project team is comprised of international and national staff members with extensive professional experience in electoral matters and in depth understanding of the local context – the challenges that Georgia faces as a transitional democracy.

The project activities are focused on capacity building, expertise and competences development, peer-to-peer exchanges, and study visits, including a regional dimension and cooperation among the EMBs of the Council of Europe member States, policy advice, sharing of experience and exchange of views in the format of effective dialogue platforms and public consultations.  

Who benefits from the Project?

The project promotes inclusive and participatory process aimed at reforming electoral practices in Georgia and engages all groups of electoral stakeholders in its activities: elections officials and civil servants, political groups, representatives of civil society organisations and media, judges adjudicating electoral complaints, women politician and candidates, youth and vulnerable groups of society.

Final beneficiaries of the project are Georgian citizens to be able to enjoy electoral rights fully and impact democratization processes in the country.

What do we expect to achieve?

In accordance with the new strategic document, the Council of Europe support in the field of elections will focus on further improving the electoral legal framework and practices, strengthening governmental institutions and increasing electoral culture among electoral stakeholders and general public, in particular in the context of 2024 national and 2025 local elections.

The project activities will be aimed at: promoting dialogue platforms and providing electoral stakeholders with high-level policy advice to support further reforming of domestic electoral practices; strengthening administrative, operational and management capacity of the Election Administration of Georgia, at all levels and the Political Finance Monitoring Department of the Anti-corruption Bureau of Georgia;  mainstreaming gender equality and intersectional perspectives in electoral practices; encouraging citizen participation and engagement of youth in electoral processes; promoting digital solutions in electoral processes to ensure integrity and transparency.

The major directions of electoral cooperation among others will be focused on: countering misuse of administrative resources, disinformation, hate speech in electoral processes; strengthening the oversight of political finance; supporting capacity development of domestic observer CSOs to improve the quality of election observation; support further efforts to improve quality of electoral dispute resolution; promote balanced and non-partisan coverage of elections; delivering capacity development activities for national stakeholders to improve further administration of elections and enhance oversight of political finances; promote gender mainstreaming among electoral stakeholders and enhance women’s political participation; conduct voter education campaigns to promote active engagement of citizens in electoral processes, including youth and persons with disabilities; promote further introduction of digital solutions to ensure integrity of electoral processes. 

Reference documents                                                                                    

1. Research “Digital Solutions in the electoral process”
2. Policy paper/study: “Personal Data Protection in the Process of Monitoring of Political Finances and Administrative Proceedings”
3. Baseline Study: “Current Practices of Local Election Observer Organisations: Challenges and Effective Monitoring Mechanisms to Better Impact Improvement of the Quality of Elections”