On July 22, 2016 the presentation of the project “Electoral Development Schools” was held on. Representatives of the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC), the Council of Europe (CoE), International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES) attended the meeting.

The learning course is designed for the youth at age of 18-24 years and will be launched on July 25. The project will cover 20 municipalities, where 680 youth are already registered to take part in the course.

During the 10 day learning course the participants will receive information on the issues such as: election systems, election administration, democratic electoral principles, elective bodies in Georgia, electoral stakeholders, transparency and accountability of elections, gender equality.

The learning course will be conducted by the members of the District Election Commissions and trainers of the Election Administration. The CEC Training Center conducted the ToT training for 46 trainers.

While making comments for media, Cristian Urse underlined the importance of the close cooperation between the Election Administration and the CoE. He emphasized that the CoE supports the CEC to successfully implement the future three election cycles. “Within the framework of cooperation on this particular project, we aim at engaging more youth in election processes”- stated Mr. Urse.

The Electoral Development Schools’ project was successfully piloted in 2015 in 10 election districts. Due to the great interest towards the project, three courses were conducted instead of one in 2015.   627 youth participated in the pilot project. Following the success of the project, the number of electoral development schools has been doubled this year and will be conducted in 20 municipalities: Gurjaani, Sighnaghi, Telavi, Rustavi, Gardabani, Marneuli, Dusheti, Gori, Borjomi, Akhaltsikhe, Ambrolauri, Sachkhere, Zestaponi, Kutaisi, Ozurgeti, Senaki, Zugdidi, Poti, Batumi, Kobuleti.

The CEC plans to expand the project and cover whole Georgia. It will give the election administration an opportunity to share electoral knowledge with more youth.

 The project “Electoral Development Schools” is conducted with the support of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES).