The Election Administration of Georgia presented the pilot project on electronic vote counting to the representatives of political parties participating in the May 13, Sakrebulo By-elections. At the meeting Tamar Zhvania, the CEC Chairperson clarified that the new initiative of Election Administration implies practical implementation of electronic vote counting for the upcoming May 13, Sakrebulo By-elections. The pilot is being implemented for the research and process evaluation purposes. As it was highlighted at the meeting, in order to count the official results, vote counting procedures defined by the election legislation will be also implemented.
Maia Parkosadze, Head of Division of Electoral Processes and Protocol Results delivered a detailed presentation on the pilot project to the political party representatives. As Ms. Parkosadze noted, the Election Administration, on the research basis, aims at defining the acceptability and coherence of new technologies by voters and electoral stakeholders.
The Election Administration, in the transitional period, was authorized to implement the activities of utilizing the electoral technologies in electoral processes before the Parliamentary Elections (Article 18516, Election Code of Georgia). Accordingly, relevant structural units of the CEC and the Training Centre elaborated the appropriate procedures to implement the pilot project.
By implementing the pilot project, the Election Administration of Georgia aims at discussing the possibilities of integrating modern and successful electoral technologies in electoral processes.
Pilot project on electronic vote counting is being implemented in cooperation with the Delian Project, a non-profit organization based in Canada, oriented on electoral technologies and by the financial support of the Government of Canada.
