The Election Administration held the discussion of the results of the project Talking to Voters. CEC leadership, the Training Center Director and other members of the working group established for project design, held meetings with representatives of district election commissions to discuss gained experience and feedback of voters over the course of the project.
At this stage, summarizing meetings were held in Kutaisi and Batumi, members of West Georgia and Tbilisi DECs took part in them.
“It has been very important that we told voters about self-government elections, provided information, interacted with them directly, as well as importantly, we heard their opinions. It is also interesting that in addition to the Election Administration, up to 500 young volunteers were engaged in this project and we visited voters village to village, door to door and told them about their rights, their civil duties, upcoming self-government elections and were closer to voters. We heard their opinions, recommendations and their wishes, which will improve our work and the services we offer to voters” – CEC Chair has stated.
The Project Talking to Voters was implemented for the first time in 2017. The aim of the mentioned initiative was to inform voters about 2017 elections, strengthen communication between the election administration and voters, and improve services offered to voters.
As part of the Project, at the first stage, DEC members and volunteers held awareness raising meetings with voters at municipal centers and public gathering areas in villages. They distributed to voters leaflets about local elections and talked to them about their electoral rights. Citizens were able to state their opinion about the services offered by the Election Administration and their needs in voters’ opinion paper.
Moreover, public meetings – Voters’ Day - were held at DECs. DEC representatives briefed interested individuals who came to meetings about the importance of local self-government elections, activities of the Election Administration and services offered to voters.
Overall, 450 meetings have been held at 73 election district areas, and 48 174 citizens took part in those. The project was implemented from April 24 to May 31, throughout Georgia, at municipal centers and villages, with the engagement of 340 DEC members and 491 volunteers.
Follow the link for the report of Talk to Voters project.
