Today, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission and Natia Zaalishvili, Director of the CEC Training Center got acquainted with the information-training course “Elections and Young Voters”. 

The CEC Chairperson and Natia Zaalishvili participated in the mock elections organized by the N1 Experimental Public-School students and discussed the importance of youth engagement in electoral processes. 

“Youth engagement and awareness-raising are one of the important priorities of the Election Administration. We are implementing several educational projects in this direction. The training course considers awareness-raising for XI-XII grade students which will contribute them to be informed and interested in various electoral processes in electoral processes. By doing so, we significantly contribute to the development of electoral culture, so that all young people and voters, in general, are well aware of their contribution and responsibility in the important process – elections and the development of the country” – stated Giorgi Kalandarishvili.

 “Timely and right communication with youth is essential. That is why we have been collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Science for years and implementing the information-learning course “Elections and Young Voter”. The students are introduced to important electoral issues and the debates on current electoral topics are held with their involvement. We do hope that the mentioned course will contribute to their awareness-raising on electoral issues and getting them as active voters” – stated Natia Zaalishvili. 

It should be noted, that this year, the information-learning course “Elections and Young Voter” is being implemented with an updated concept. The area of the project implementation has increased. The program developed by the CEC Training will be implemented at approximately 300 public schools in 64 municipalities throughout the country, including the regions densely populated with ethnic minorities. While discussing various electoral issues, XI-XII grade students get acquainted with new modules, namely: inclusive electoral environment, negative impacts of disinformation and hate speech on the electoral process; innovative services introduced by the Election Administration to ensure electoral integrity and transparency. The course covers three days. Mock elections are and debates are being conducted with the participation of students. Within the frames of the course, representatives of the Election Administration meet with the students and provide them with detailed information on Election Administration activities and the technologies utilized in electoral processes. 

The project has been implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia since 2015. About 13 000 students of 738 public schools participated in the project.