On March 5, 2018, the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) and the Center for Electoral Systems, Development, Reforms and Trainings (the Training Center) held an international workshop about electoral technologies.

The major topic of the workshop was "Considering the possibilities of using electoral technologies in electoral process of Georgia", international experts and representatives of electoral technologies oriented companies participated in it.

Tamar Zhvania, CEC Chair, Matt Gokhool, Chief Executive of International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) and Christian Urse, Head of Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Georgia, opened the event. Giorgi Sharabidze, Deputy Chair of CEC and Giorgi Javakhishvili, CEC Secretary also welcomed the participants. Natia Zaalishvili, Training Center Director facilitated the workshop.

Tamar Zhvania, CEC Chair, spoke about the services implemented by the Election Administration of Georgia using modern technologies, also reviewed the challenges related to the electoral process, regarding to the necessity of improving the vote counting procedure and underscored the importance of learning about international practice with electoral technologies.

International experts and representatives of electoral technologies oriented companies invited to the event made presentations and held practical demonstration of the operation of electoral technologies. In the question and answer mode workshop participants received detailed information about electoral technologies approved in various countries of the world. Giorgi Sharabidze, CEC Deputy Chairperson, acquainted the participants with the experience of Georgian Election Administration and spoke about technological services implemented for voters and stakeholders for the improvement of electoral processes.

Among important issues reviewed at the international workshop were: vote counting process supporting through tested technologies; biometric registration of voters; safe, transparent and affordable elections: electronic voting, data registration and counting; the role of technologies in electronic vote counting process.

The workshop was held at the hotel “Courtyard Marriott” and 148 representatives of government agencies, political parties, international and local NGOs took part in it.

The CEC and the Training Center held the international workshop in cooperation with the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS).

International experts and electoral technologies oriented companies who took part in the event:

International Centre for Parliamentary Studies - ICPS (the UK); Brunel University London; Electoral technologies companies: Smartmatic (USA), Electoral Services International Inc. – ESI (Canada), Voatz (USA), Indra (Spain).