On October 23, 2015, the training for the members of NGOs registered at the CEC with the observer status for the Parliament of Georgia and City Council – local self-government representative bodies October 31, 2015 interim elections was held at the Training Center.

Natia Zaalishvili, Training Center Director, opened the training. She spoke about the importance of proactive cooperation with electoral stakeholders, and awareness raising and training projects implemented by the Training Center, aimed at the development of electoral culture. Participants were also welcomed by Giorgi Chikaberidze, CEC member, who highlighted the important role of observer organizations in the process of democratization of the country.

Training participants were introduced to such important issues, as: the role of an observer in the elections process, observer’s rights, polling day procedures, activities of a precinct election commission on Election Day and application/complaints on the election day.

17 representatives of 9 NGOs (GYLA, Transparency International - Georgia, Center for Development and Democracy, Public Defender’s office, the Public Movement Multinational Georgia, International Observatory for Lawyers, Public Council of Civic Advisors, the Center for the Development of Civil Society and Democracy, Association for Free Development and Rights Protection).

The training program is aimed at raising awareness of representatives of NGOs and supporting effective implementation of the observation function.

At the end of training, the training manuals prepared by the Training Center, Polling Day Procedures, were distributed to the representatives of NGOs.